


kiss me (it's nice to be alive)

by theinvisibledisaster



Series: 666 Fics [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bones Fusion, Alternate Universe - Easy A (2010) Fusion, Alternate Universe - Jane Austen Fusion, Alternate Universe - Marvel Cinematic Universe Fusion, Alternate Universe - Once Upon a Time Fusion, Alternate Universe - Pride and Prejudice Fusion, Alternate Universe - Queen Of The South Fusion, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - The Breakfast Club Fusion, Alternate Universe - The Good Place (TV) Fusion, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Bellarke, F/M, Marper - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2020-05-28 05:24:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19387387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theinvisibledisaster/pseuds/theinvisibledisaster
Summary: All the Bellarke/The 100 mini-fics from my tumblr celebration!1. Bellarke Pride and Prejudice2. Bellarke Easy A3. The 100 but it's The Good Place4. Delinquents as The Breakfast Club because why the hell not5. Bellarke in the MCU6. Bellarke as Bones & Booth7. If The 100 had a Queen Of The South vibe8. Marper as Snowing9. Bellarke timey wimey AU10. Royalty Arranged Marriage AU





	1. angry people are not always wise

**Author's Note:**

> All the fics I wish I could write but that I don't have the time, condensed into these mini-fics for my tumblr follower celebration!! I might expand on some of them someday, when I have the time, but today is not that day. Time is a crushing vortex that never stops spinning, my dudes.
> 
> title comes from one of my favourite songs, It's Nice To Be Alive by Ball Park Music. try and listen to that song without feeling happier afterwards, i TRIPLE DOG DARE U. anyway, i hope you enjoy this collection of mini-blarke-nonsense!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bellarke as Pride and Prejudice, fusing two of my favourite things in the world together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The main reason I haven't written a full fic version of this is that it would take over my entire life and I would never recover. So you get this little ficlet instead!! 
> 
> the title is a quote from the book and honestly??? blarke af
> 
> I hope you like it!!

_“I don’t know what you expect me to say.”_

_“An apology would be nice.”_

_“An apology?!”_

_“You insulted my honour, my family, my character, and my opinions and all in the very same breath with which you proposed, Mr Blake. if you don’t see the fault in that then I am exceedingly glad to have turned you down.”_

Clarke was drawn from the memory by the sudden and rather alarming appearance of her mother in the doorway. She dragged her gaze from the gardens and turned to greet her, but Mrs Griffin was already grabbing her and dragging her downstairs.

“Mother!”

“Mr Green is here!”

“I don’t see how that has anything at all to do with me.” She said, although her heart beat a little faster. One of the things she’d argued with Mr Blake with so long ago was his frankly despicable decision to dissaude Mr Green from pursuing a courtship with her sister, Harper, and if Green was here now, it meant, at the very least, that Blake was no longer standing in their way.

“Don’t get smart with me, the family will be expected to greet him, Clarke. Besides, are you really telling me you don’t want to be there for your sister at a time like this? She’s probably terrified!”

When they entered the drawing room, Harper was leaning idly against the table, barely stitching, and there was excitement in her eyes that she was trying - very poorly - to conceal.

“Terrified indeed.” Clarke muttered under her breath, but she sat down next to her anyway. Murphy and Jasper - their remaining siblings - were sitting by the fireplace, chatting idly about something while making sure to keep their eyes locked onto the door. It was cute really, how protective they were of Harper’s heart - no less protective than Clarke herself, of course.

Then Mr Green entered and - oh dear - Mr Blake followed in after him. They all stood to greet them, curtseying, and Green moved over to sit down in a vacant chair, while Blake stayed close to the door, clearly uncomfortable in his surroundings. Clarke swallowed hard, meeting his eyes over her mother’s shoulder, and his lips quirked up slightly when he saw her.

The last time she’d seen him was when she found out about Josephine’s misconduct - running away with Dax in the middle of the night and bringing shame to their entire family - when he’d comforted her before politely excusing himself. She’d been convinced she would never see him again. No matter how much she discovered her initial impressions of him had been wrong, there was no chance he’d renew his addresses to her after that. Not when his own younger sister had almost done the same thing the year before and he’d barely stopped the union.

Yet here he was, standing in front of her in the afternoon light, standing stiffly the way he always did in polite company. She realised that the person she knew as Mr Blake in society was so clearly not the man he wished to be - it wasn’t how he had been at Pemberley, so kind and obliging - he was detached and carried an air of frustration around with him. But she could still see the man she knew, sparkling behind his eyes in the way he looked at her.

She barely registered that her mother was talking until she said his name.

“…I suppose Mr Blake may join you, if you wish.” Abby said, very unkindly. She hadn’t liked Bellamy since almost their first meeting, when he’d turned his nose down at them. Of course, they’d all believed it was because he thought himself better than them. Now Clarke new better, but it seemed her family still did not.

Monty just smiled amiably. “Excellent. I’m sure we’ll be frequent visitors while we are here.”

“And how long will you be staying in the neighbourhood?” Harper asked. It was the kind of question that felt like it should end with a ‘my love’ or a ‘my dear’ and Clarke couldn’t help but smile over at her sister, enjoying her happiness.

“As long as possible.” He said, beaming over at her.

Something touched her elbow and she realised Bellamy had moved while she was looking at her sister and was now standing very close behind her.

“You don’t wish to take a seat, Miss Griffin?” He asked politely.

She hadn’t even realised she’d forgotten to sit back down, so enraptured by his gaze and the events unfolding before them. She tilted her head up and offered a smile, just for him. “Would you like me to?”

“Absolutely not.” He said, a little too quickly. He coloured a little. “What I mean is, I was thinking of taking a walk about your gardens and I’m sure Mont- Mr Green would like to take your sister around as well.”

“Mmm, probably.” She hummed.

“You have no intention of making this easy for me, do you?”

“Absolutely not.” She teased.

He grinned, ducking his head to hide it. “Good. So if they are intending to stroll through the gardens, I was thinking I might need a partner. As they will be so busy talking to each other.”

“Well, Jasper’s always good company. He knows a lot about the plants. Although I don’t recommend Murphy, largely because he’s in a mood and will likely continue to be in that mood for the rest of his life.”

“Miss Griffin you know damn well I mean you.”

“I do.” She admitted. “Nice to hear you say it though.”

He stepped back a little and she missed his presence, until he held his arm out rather obviously. When he spoke, his voice was loud enough for the room to hear. “Miss Griffin, I wonder if you might show me around your beautiful grounds? I believe Mr Green was excited to see the apple trees in the east field, perhaps Miss Harper Griffin could acompany us?”

“We’d love to!” Harper said, the cheeky look in her eye only mirrored by Green’s. They were the only two people in the room who knew of Clarke’s burdgeoning attachment to Blake, and his longstanding one for her, and they clearly wished them as much happiness as they had together.

Abby looked slightly put out that she wouldn’t get to watch over Harper’s romance blossoming for the next few hours, but she waved a hand to let them go. “Be sure to be back in time for tea - we’ll set the table for you!”

Clarke curled a hand around his offered arm, and she could barely conceal her smile the entire way out of the house. She was pretty sure Murphy caught it, if the way he was smirking down at his book was any indication.

Once they were well away from the house and Harper and Monty were trailing behind them by some yards, Clarke sighed and looked up at him. What she found when she met his eyes was a love the likes of which she’d never seen, not even in Harper’s eyes when she spoke about her love for Mr Green.

He inhaled sharply, steeling himself. “If I ask you to marry me again, will you snap at me?”

“I’m not sure. Ask, and we’ll see.”


	2. Knock On Wood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blarke meets Easy A!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what can i say i'm a ho for... fake hoes. and real hoes! Respect the sex industry laydeez!!!

Finn was smiling at her over the table even as her heart sank and she started internally praying to every god she could think of for a way out.

“Um. What are you talking about?”

“The deal, right? Do I pay you now or later?”

The thing was, idiot that she had been, she thought Finn had asked her out as a friend, or maybe on a real date - not to make a deal with her.

She really hadn’t meant to become the queen of taking virginities and doling out street cred, but sometimes life be like that. First it had been Jasper Jordan, who was so desperate for people to stop teasing him about being a high school senior still in possession of his v-card that Clarke had offered to tell people she’d taken it. It wasn’t like it was a big deal, it was just sex, and she’d never understood the obsession with knowing if other people had or hadn’t done it anyway. He was so grateful that he made a special batch of moonshine for her which was now half-finished and hidden under her bed.

Then it had been Monty, who had been frustrated at the rampant homophobia in the guys locker room at his bisexuality to the point where he wanted to pretend to be straight, just for a little while. Jasper mentioned her name and she pretended to date him for two weeks, and now the three of them were pretty good friends considering how they started.

But somehow word got out, and as is wont to happen with school rumour mills, it got mixed up. Half the school knew about her willingness to pretend for a friend in need, or cash, and the other half just thought she was a raging slut.

She’d never really cared about what everybody else thought of her; most of her life she’d been labelled the “princess” or the “know-it-all” so she learned to stop caring about mean labels pretty quickly.

Now she was sitting in a diner across from Finn and she suddenly felt blind-sided by it. Because the two factions of school rumour had become so turgid that there was now more than one person who thought Clarke was literally just a prostitute - selling herself for money. This was, of course, not helped by Echo Espion, who at this point seemed to be openly telling people Clarke was a whore.

Clarke pushed her plate away, suddenly not hungry. “I’m not like that, Finn.”

He frowned, seeming genuinely distressed by her sudden change of humour. “What do you mean? It’s not a secret, Clarke, everyone knows.”

“It’s not true.” She said, firmly; end of discussion.

Yet, for some unfathomable reason, he continued. “I’m not, like, judging you or anything. I’m paying too, it’s not like I think I’m better than that.”

“You know what, I think I’m done with dinner.” She slid to the end of the booth. “You should probably lose my number.”

She was halfway across the carpark when he cornered her, grabbing her wrist. “Hey, I paid-”

“-Collins, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” A deep voice cut through Clarke’s pounding heartbeat in her ears and she spun around to find Bellamy Blake standing by the bins, his uniform half-untucked. She’d forgotten he worked here.

Finn didn’t let go of her arm. “None of your business, Blake, don’t you have some customers to annoy?”

“Nope.” He said, eyes trained on Finn’s fingers around Clarke’s wrist. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

“Why would I?”

Bellamy folded his arms and took a menacing step forward. “The lady said _no_ already, jackass. So it follows that you would then _find someone else_. Someone who actually _wants_ your pathetic ass.”

Finn straightened, puffing his chest out. “I pay, she puts out, everyone knows that.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Bellamy drew his fist back but before he even had a chance to strike, Clarke had jerked her leg up and rammed her knee into Finn’s dick. He doubled over, looking up at her in shock and pain.

“I slipped,” she shrugged, stepping away from him.

She turned her back on his glare and started walking towards her car, acutely aware that Bellamy was following her.

“I can take care of myself, you know. It’s a pretty well-lit carpark.”

“Actually, I was hoping I could get a ride,” he said, and they both knew he was lying, that his bus would be arriving soon, but he ended up in her passenger seat anyway.

They drove in silence for a while, until they both started to speak at once. He apologised but Clarke rolled her eyes at him and he smiled.

“Sorry. I was going to ask if you needed directions.”

“No, I remember the way.”

She hadn’t been to his house since middle school, back when she was friends with Octavia and she had the biggest crush on him it was possible to have. But she and O drifted apart and when Bellamy graduated, two years old than Clarke but only a year ahead because he had to take a break to take care of his mother, she didn’t really think she’d see him again. Yet he seemed to always be around, at parties, after school, at that restaurant. He was still friends with a lot of people from her grade, because of Octavia, and everyone he was friends with had graduated a year before him, so it made sense. Didn’t make it easy for her to pretend her crush was past-tense though. Especially when he came to her rescue in a dark carpark without prompting and then pretended he needed a ride home just to make sure she got safely to her car.

She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “Hey, you know I’m not a prostitute, right?”

He made a face. “I wouldn’t care if you were, there’s nothing wrong with jobs in the sex industry as long as you’re safe.”

“Yeah but… you know I’m not, right?”

“Yeah, Clarke.” He smiled softly at her and it was suddenly really hard to keep her eyes on the road. “I knew the second I heard about Jasper and you. I asked him about it and he basically confirmed my suspicions, and then suddenly half the student body was claiming to have slept with you, and you bought a new laptop, so.”

“Hey, I needed that laptop, for _science_.”

“What science?”

“…art.”

He snorted. “Sounds about right.”

She pulled up in his driveway but he didn’t get out. Instead, he leaned over and turned the engine off, holding her gaze.

“You’re okay, right? I know you don’t care about your reputation and I know you’re annoyingly noble so you’ll keep doing it even if you get hurt as long as you think it’s helping other people, but… I don’t want you getting hurt. You deserve better than people thinking they’re entitled to sleep with you just because of some high school rumours.”

“I really want to kiss you.” She said.

_Out loud._

He blinked. “Uh. That’s not really the response I was expecting.”

“Yeah, well, I’m unpredictable.” She frowned, eyes darting to his lips. “I don’t _just_ want to kiss you now, because you’re being nice to me. I’ve wanted to kiss you for years, since back when you hated me. I just… I’m not scared of telling you anymore.”

“Wait, you like me?!” His mouth fell open. “Seriously? But Echo told me…”

“Echo told you? Echo your ex-girlfriend who notoriously hates me and is currently telling the entire town that I’m a call girl? That Echo?”

“Ah. Yep.” He scrubbed a hand down his face in frustration. “I’m just… you like me?”

“Stupid amounts.” She admitted. “Really, just… stupid, ridiculous amounts.”

“God, do you have any idea how much I like you?” He asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’ve been wanting to date you for years and I didn’t know how to ask and then you just come right out and tell me you want to kiss me. If I’d have known it was that easy to say I would have said it years ago, but it always seemed so hard.”

She shrugged. “I like you. And you still look at me like I’m normal even when the world thinks I’m sleeping with people for money. You’re worried about me, even though I got myself into this situation. It just sort of slipped out.”

“I should have let it slip out years ago.” He scolded himself.

“Probably.” She hummed.

He reached over and took her hand carefully. “Do you really wanna kiss me?”

“Yes.” She said breathlessly.

“It’ll cost you,” he teased, and she smacked his chest in annoyance, but she was already leaning in and they were both smiling and when their lips touched Clarke could forget that anything in the world existed outside of that moment in her shitty car in front of his shitty house, with the nicest guy she’d ever met.


	3. Everything Is Fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The 100 meets The Good Place!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my only regret is that i didn't get to write an entire fic with diyoza as michael... my heart cries out for that loss and perhaps one day i will have the time and energy to write a whole fic and give that the RESPECT IT DESERVES 
> 
> in the meantime, have this little ditty!

Bellamy and Clarke had been in The Good Place for over a month and they had been driving each other crazy the entire time.

“I’m just saying, why the fuck would you leave your shoes directly in the doorway?”

“Oh it’s all part of my calculated plan to kill you.” Clarke said lazily from where she was lying on the couch.

“You shouldn’t want to kill me, you’re supposed to be my soulmate. You shouldn’t be this damn annoying. Maybe they made a mistake, maybe I’m actually supposed to be with Murphy, or Raven.”

“Yeah because Raven’s ‘holier than tho’ attitude would never get to you, and the fact that Murphy’s a mute wouldn’t bore you to death.” She closed her eyes and relaxed further into the cushions. “And before you say anything, Miller and Bryan across the street are perfectly happy with each other. They keep rubbing it in our faces, it’s super annoying.”

“How are they all doing so well?”

“They’re soulmates, it’s in the job description.”

Not a job, Clarke.”

“You know what I mean, jackass.” She sighed. “Besides, I’m not even supposed to be here, you know that.”

“Exactly! So why did I get stuck with you?”

“Maybe you’re not supposed to be here either. Maybe they double-fucked it.”

“You’re the worst.”

“And yet I’m not the one bothered by that.”

They were interrupted by Murphy running in, knocking over an expensive looking vase in the doorway as he did. “Clarke I think Diyoza knows about me and Emori.”

Bellamy’s jaw dropped and he looked to Clarke, who looked pretty unsurprised.

“I’m sorry, you can talk?”

“Please, he never shuts up. He’s also an epic dick.” Clarke groaned, sitting up. She waved a hand. “Sorry, did I forget to mention that Murphy’s not supposed to be here either?”

He ground his teeth together, trying and failing to remain calm.

She seemed to notice his distress and reached for his hand. “Hey. Hey! I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to put you in this situation, but you’re in it now and I’m sorry, but you’ve gotta stay calm, okay?”

Her thumb stroked gently over his knuckles and, surprisingly, it actually helped. He felt his pulse returning to normal and he took a few deep breaths as he turned his attention to their unexpected guest, who seemed to have calmed down significantly as well, and was now lounging on the nearest armchair, tossing an apple in the air.

“Diyoza came to check in on Raven and me, see how we were settling in, and Raven mentioned that I summoned Emori a lot and that she didn’t see why I would need to when I had her around, because she could tell me anything I needed to know.”

“Of course she did.” Clarke muttered.

“And Diyoza got suspicious.”

“That’s it? That’s all you’ve come over here for?”

“Hey, I know you don’t think it makes any sense for me to be in love with a computer program that looks like a super hot woman-”

“-trust me that’s the part I _definitely_ understand-”

“-but I am, and if Diyoza finds out that this place is glitchy and that we’re not supposed to be here, she might get rid of us and Emori and then I’ll never see her again.”

“So Raven isn’t your soulmate?” Bellamy clarified.

“Nope.”

“Maybe that’s it!” He said. “Maybe I was supposed to end up with Raven and you two glitched and got in the way.”

Clarke bristled. “That’s not it.”

He scowled over at her.

She shrugged. “I’m not trying to rain on your parade, I just know that’s not it. I’m sure you and Raven would get on fine, but you’re not soulmates.”

“How could you possibly know that?” He asked.

“Yeah Clarke,” Murphy said smugly, biting into the apple and talking around his mouthful, “how do you know he’s not Raven’s soulmate?”

She jabbed a finger at him. “You shut up, and you,” she turned to look at Bellamy, “just trust me, okay.”

It was then he realised that her hand was still in his. And he really didn’t mind. In fact, he might even have said he enjoyed it. Ah, fuck.

Clarke sighed. “I want you to be happy, Bellamy. We’ll figure a way out of this and we’ll get you to your real soulmate, okay? How much is there in your history books about heaven and hell?”

“A lot,” he rubbed his jaw, deep in thought. “I taught an entire course on the moral relativism of cultural depictions of the afterlife once, about six years ago.”

“Fascinating.” Murphy said sarcastically.

“Yeah, it is,” Clarke said, eyes lighting up. “Because it might be the thing that helps us work out what to do. Emori!”

Emori pinged into existence and Murphy tossed his apple over his shoulder, sitting up and grinning wolfishly.

“Yes, Clarke, what can I do for you?” She asked, smiling.

“We need every resource from a class Bellamy taught six years ago.” Clarke said, and stacks of books and files and website references printed on neat blue paper appeared in the room. She surveyed them and slumped, sighing frustratedly. “And… we probably need Raven’s help.”

Emori disappeared and when she reappeared, Raven knocked on the door, inviting herself in. “I was told you needed my expertise?”

“Not what I said, but okay.” Clarke lifted her eyes to the ceiling, very obviously, but she smiled tensely over at the other woman anyway. “Sit down, we’ll explain.”

She looked anxious in a way Bellamy hadn’t seen before, and she was watching the other three people in the room warily, like she was about to get up and bolt, and he realised that she was actually scared, that she’d never had to rely on people like this before and that it frightened her.

Bellamy squeezed her fingers, drawing her attention back to him. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay. We’re in this together. Even if they decide to back out or Murphy screws us over-”

“-hey! I resent that-”

“-we’re in this together.” He sat down on the couch next to her and picked up a book, but he didn’t let go of her hand.

“Really? You don’t hate me for ruining your chance to find a soulmate?” She asked nervously.

“If I had a soulmate, I never would have met you.” He said matter-of-factly. “And you’re way too interesting not to know. It’s you and me, Princess.”

“You and me,” she repeated, nudging his shoulder with her own as she picked up a stack of files.

Maybe that sign at the entrance to The Good Place was wrong and everything wasn’t fine, but it was right too, because he was fine with that.


	4. don't you forget about me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [@bellarkestitchdelena](https://bellarkestitchdelena.tumblr.com/) asked for a lil Breakfast Club AU so here you go!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CLARKE – CLAIRE  
> BELLAMY – BENDER  
> RAVEN – ANDREW  
> MONTY – BRIAN  
> MURPHY – ALLISON
> 
> don't @ me, i'm right

So, what are you all in for?” Murphy drawled.

They’d been stuck in there for four hours but for some reason, none of them had thought to ask the question. In their defence, they’d spent most of the time arguing, messing with Principal Lightbourne, and trying to find an escape, but now that they were all sitting on the floor together sharing their lunches, it seemed as good a time as any.

They all looked to Bellamy first.

He rolled his eyes. “What do you _think_ I did?”

“Smoked in the quad.”

“Beat up the Wallace kid again.”

“Slashed Mr McCreary’s tires.”

Raven snapped her fingers. “Kicked a puppy.”

“Yeah, fuck you Reyes.” Bellamy glared at her, but she just shrugged, grinning. He sighed, defeated. “I broke into the library.”

Clarke pressed her lips together, trying to hide her amusement. “You what?”

He bumped his shoulder against hers, and she found that she really wasn’t bothered by it anymore. Not that she would admit that.

“I needed a book for my sociology class, and I arrived at the library after it closed. I didn’t even break in, not really, the door was barely locked, but being found in there after dark is apparently a crime, so.”  
“I’m sorry, you broke in to study?” Raven asked.

“Like you even know what studying is, Reyes.” He retorted.

“You’re right, I don’t, I’m too smart to stoop to that.”

“Alright, what are you in for?” He asked her pointedly.

She fidgeted uncomfortably. “You know the last game I played, where that bitch on the Polis team fouled me?”

They all nodded - the school had barely talked about anything else for days. Prime Jock and dead ringer for a sports scholarship to the college of her choice getting taken down by a 5′2″ wiry girl with braces; it was pretty big news.

“My doctor told me that there’s a possibilty my knee might be permanently messed up. I might never be able to play again.” Her hand unconsciously rubbed her leg.

“I’m so sorry Raven.” Monty said.

“Yeah well, shit happens.” She said, but they could all see how hurt she was by it. She rolled her shoulders back, shaking it off. “And I was just... I was so mad about it, that I keyed her car.”

Murphy choked on air. “You... you keyed someone’s car?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. But because it was on our campus, one of the teachers saw me and told me they could either call the cops or send me to the principal.”

“Tough choice.” He said, and meant it.

“Yeah. The girl actually thought it was pretty funny. She asked me out afterwards, to _pay off the damage.”_

“Trust you to come out of this completely on top.” Bellamy groaned.

“You know better than anyone how much I like being on top, Blake.” She quipped.

Clarke tried to ignore the sudden pang in her chest at the news that Raven and Bellamy had hooked up. She didn’t care. Before today she hated Bellamy. He was the asshole from the wrong side of the tracks who deliberately antagonised her in middle school. She didn’t care about him or who he slept with. She was just surprised that a jock would sleep with an outcast, that was all.

“What about you, Monty?” She asked, to cover the ache of frustration. “What are you doing here?”

“I found out my best friend wanted to kill himself.” He said matter-of-factly, and all the oxygen left the room.

“What?”

“Yeah, it… I don’t think he was going to go through it, but I found a gun under his pillow and I… I wanted to talk to him about it, to help, before he could do anything. So I put the gun in my bag and pretended everything was fine. We got to school and I was gonna talk to him about it and then, uh, they did those random locker searches. Found the gun.”

Raven covered her mouth. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, it took a lot of explaining.” He shrugged. “On the plus side, Jasper realised I took a - metaphorical - bullet for him, and he came clean. He’s getting counselling, and his mom got rid of all the weapons in the house.”

“So at least the detention is worth it.” Murphy said, and he actually sounded genuine.

“Yeah. It’s worth it.” Monty nodded emphatically. He smiled, small, but it was there. “What about you, Clarke? What did you do to get here?”

“I ditched school.” She muttered.

“What?!” Bellamy crowed, grinning. “The Princess ditched? Don’t tell me you went shopping or something, please, that’s too much.”

“I went to visit my dad in the hospital.” She said, and Bellamy’s smile faded a little. Everyone knew about Jake Griffin’s cancer, the fact that he’d had to take a step back from his council position because he was getting sicker. When a new treatment became available, the whole town was in support of it, but the only hospital that offered it was the other side of the country. Clarke shrugged. “I missed him, and my mom kept being too busy to take me. I think she just doesn’t want to see him sick. And I get that, but… he’s my dad. So I bought a plane ticket and went to see him. Wells came with me, but he didn’t get caught.”

“How?” Monty frowned.

“People don’t suspect Wells of anything. It’s practically a superpower.” She smiled at the thought of her best friend. “Although he did offer to fall on his sword for me so I wouldn’t be alone today.”

“You’re not alone, Princess.” Bellamy said, heartfelt, and reached for her hand. It surprised her a little, but she let him take hold of it, lacing his fingers through hers and squeezing them tight.

She rested her head on his shoulder. So maybe she had a thing for the bad boy. At least he liked her right back. “I know.”

The five of them sat there, feeling for the first time in a long time like they’d found the people they belonged with, until finally, Raven poked Murphy with her shoe.

“Alright weirdo, spill - what are you doing here?”

Murphy shrugged. “Didn’t have anything better to do.”

Raven threw her apple core at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you like it cuties!! i like comments as much as bender likes claire <3


	5. banter and baseball bats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [@blvke-bellamy](https://blvke-bellamy.tumblr.com/) asked for bellarke as random bystanders during the battle of New York in the mcu and this is what came out :')

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this was a BLAST to write, I hope y'all like it!!

The ground was rumbling.

Clarke faltered as she placed mugs of coffee down for the couple by the window, apologising for the spill, and glanced out of it.

There were creatures in the sky.

Grey, angry creatures on flying jetskis and enormous flying whales were attacking the city, and they were getting closer. She could hear it all more clearly now; the smashing of glass, the crumbling of concrete, the cries of people as they fled the scourge.

She took a hesitant step back and hit something – Bellamy was standing behind her. He must have run up when he felt the shaking, to investigate, and his hand curled around her arm.

“We need to move.” He said. She glanced over her shoulder at him, but his eyes were locked on the horizon.

She sprung to action, calling out to the whole café. “Alright, everybody out! Head left and don’t stop running! Move, move, move!!”

Everyone abandoned their meals and started scrambling for the door, sprinting down the sidewalk away from the action.

Clarke waited until the last person was gone before she closed the door with a cheery jingle and latched it. She looked back to Bellamy, who ducked down behind the counter, and emerged with a baseball bat and a pistol in his hand.

He met her eyes. “You want to run?”

It was a genuine question, no judgemental tone, just an option he was waiting for her to take.

She raised an eyebrow. “Throw me the gun.”

He grinned and tossed it to her, flipping the bat around his fingers. “Did you lock up?”

“Yep. And if one of those superhero jackasses throws an alien through our window, they’ll have more than just Loki to worry about.” She said, cocking the gun.

He snorted and they stepped out the side exit and onto the street.

The aliens were almost upon them, and just as they reached the nearest junction, a car went flipping through the air, ending up on its back, and Bellamy clambered onto it, getting into a batter’s stance.

Clarke rolled her eyes and positioned herself behind a mailbox, gun pointed at the flying troops as they rocketed towards them. “You’ve always gotta be dramatic.”

“It’s one of my best traits, Princess.”

“Is not.” She cocked the pistol.

“You know you love it.”

“Maybe.”

 _“You_ married me.” He pointed out, and then swung his bat, hard.

It made a sickening crack as it hit one of the vehicles, shattering something on the side and sending it careening into a lamppost. The alien flipped forward over the front and smashed into a car window.

“And you can’t say it’s not effective.” He continued, grinning.

She aimed her gun high and fired, catching the engine of the vehicle. It exploded and the alien veered sideways and hit another vehicle, sending them both to the ground.

“But is it as effective as _me?”_ She asked, shooting a wink at him.

“Wanna make a wager?”

“Not really.” She deadpanned, shooting down another ship.

“You win, I’ll spend a whole week sucking up to your mother.” He swung the bat again, knocking an alien off course. “I win, and… we talk about kids.”

It threw her off and the bullet was wide, barely scraping the side of one of the space whales. “Bellamy, we run a business in New York, we’re both still paying off student debt, and in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a wormhole in the sky. You think that _now_ is the time to have this conversation?”

Without warning, something tackled her to the ground, and she had just enough cognizance to recognise the colours of the American flag before Captain America was on his feet again, holding his hand out to her. “You alright?”

She let him lift her, glancing to see the bus that was on its side right where she’d just been standing. It had thrown the car Bellamy had been standing on into the road, and she gripped harder to Cap’s arm, looking around for him desperately. “Did you see-”

But before she had a chance to finish the question, Iron Man swooped down and deposited Bellamy next to her.

“Thank you.” She said, reaching for Bellamy instinctively, drawing him closer.

“Don’t mention it.” Cap said, leaping up.

Iron Man caught him. “And get off the streets!”

They disappeared down the further into the city, towards the large beam in the sky, and Bellamy and Clarke glanced at each other. She reloaded her gun. “You want to run?”

“Not a chance.” He lifted the bat again. “First to ten?”

“Kids?” She quipped. “I think _I’ll_ get to ten before you manage _one.”_

He whacked a nearby alien in the face and then paused. “Wait. Do you mean-”

In his surprise, he didn’t see the one creeping up behind him, and she spun around, shooting it between the eyes. He blinked, watching it fall, and then swung the bat around again.

“Yeah.” She said, already aiming at another two creatures stalking towards them. “You manage to not die, and I’ll have your babies, Blake.”

“Sounds like a deal to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> your kudos and comments make me happier than bellamy with a baseball bat!


	6. Tick Tock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> my good bitch wife [Lindsey](https://chase-the-windandtouch-the-sky.tumblr.com/) asked for a Bellarke/Bones fusion and I live to serve <3

Clarke observed the bones before her, taking in the nicks and edges, and trying to figure out exactly how he died. It had been a tricky one, and most of the rest of the team had gone home for the night - although Monty had left her some food in the fridge if she needed it - but she couldn’t leave until she’d cracked it.

She noticed that one of the head wounds was at a strange angle and leaned closer, thinking, thinking, _thinking-_

“Hey Doc, you planning on staring at those forever, or can you give me a murder weapon?” Bellamy’s voice cut through her concentration, and she straightened, glaring.

He smiled and she tried to maintain her annoyance but that had been getting harder and harder lately. In the five years they’d been working together, ever since he turned up one day flashing a badge and demanding answers from her and her team, they’d developed a partnership and she didn’t want to jeopardise that. Which is why it was so frustrating that she was ridiculously in love with him.

“Do you think I can just magic it up, Blake?” She asked, making sure to give it more of an edge than usual.

“Of course not, Clarke, I know you don’t believe in magic.” He leaned against the nearest shelf. “But you’ve been staring at those bones for hours and we’ve still got nothing.”

_“We?”_

He shrugged.

“What about your side of things - means, motive, opportunity?” She asked.

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Everyone loved the guy; he was building a new orphanage, for god’s sake! As for means, I need your findings to work that out, and opportunity is the worst because _anyone_ had the opportunity to kill him if they knew what his schedule was - the man ran like clockwork.”

She sighed and leaned back over the skull, frowning at one of the marks. She hummed, brain whirring through ideas. _“Clockwork.”_

Bellamy made a face. “It’s an expression, Princess.”

“I _know_ that, Bellamy, and _don’t_ call me Princess.” She snapped.

He raised his arms in surrender. “Alright, alright. What about clockwork?”

She tilted her head, idea still not yet fully formed. “We estimated time of death at 11pm, right? Because of the heat down by the construction site?”

His arms lowered slightly. “Yeah, why?”

“What if… what if we’re wrong about the time of death.” She suggested, trying to remember what the victim’s routine was. “In the evenings, he meets with the night shift workers at about 11pm, right? But he never did, or at least, no-one’s admitted to speaking with him. That’s why we figured everyone had opportunity, because he was onsite in a busy, dark construction area.”

“What’s your point, Princess?” He asked, earning a withering look from her that only served to make him smirk.

She held her hand out for the file under his arm and he passed it over. “My _point_ is, what was he doing _before_ that?”

Bellamy came around to her side of the table, standing incredibly close to her, and leaned down to look at the schedule. His finger trailed over the list until he reached the correct time slot. “His wife told us he visited his first ever architectural success once a week, on the day he was killed.”

Clarke snapped her fingers. “That’s the clocktower.”

He glanced over at her, and _wow_ his face was close. “How do you know that?”

“There’s a plaque.” She said, matter-of-fact.

“That doesn’t really answer my question, Princess.”

“My parents used to take me there, when I was little. The plaque was exactly my height, I remember it clear as day - his name, and the dates of construction and…” She trailed off. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“And the name of the man who died during the fitting of the clock face. Some kind of freak accident, the papers said, although some people thought they’d been cutting safety regulations. Maybe-”

“-the victim’s family thought he was to blame. Decided to get some revenge.” He finished for her.

She hesitated. “But that doesn’t make sense, why wait twenty years?”

She had him there. He froze, and he was _still_ so close to her and she wasn’t sure what to do about it, but she definitely wasn’t planning to move further away. She found herself leaning in more, just fractionally, but he caught it, eyes dropping to the distance between them and back up to her face.

Something occurred to him; she saw it happen, the way his eyes lit up. “You were just a _kid_ when your parents took you to the clocktower.”

 _“So maybe the killer was too.”_ She realised with him, and he grabbed the folder and started jogging towards the exit. She tore off her lab coat and followed him, everything slotting into place as they headed for his car. “So the kid grows up and sees the architect who, in his eyes, caused his father’s death, and decides to take the opportunity?”

Bellamy shook his head, sliding into the driver’s seat and starting the engine. “No, like you said, everybody knew his routine, this wasn’t random opportunity, this was - seatbelt, Princess - this was _planned.”_

He pulled out into the road, siren blaring.

“But, wait, if he was killed at the clocktower and then _moved_ to the construction site, why didn’t we catch that earlier?”

“We were running under the assumption that he was killed there, because some workers claimed to remember seeing him around in his big blue coat, but if that was the killer, then-”

“-then the reasonable assumption is that he was killed earlier, I read your book, Princess. But still, how did _Raven_ get the time of death wrong?”

“Temperature.” She explained holding tight to the handle as he rounded a corner. “The warmth at the site made it appear a certain way, but if he was killed somewhere up high, somewhere _cold_ , then it would throw the time of death off by an hour or two.”

“Which narrows down means, because there’s only one person inside the clocktower that late at night.”

“And he’s just the right age.”

“Motive, means, opportunity.” He said, shooting a smile at her. “Well, now that you’ve helped me do _my_ job, are you any closer to figuring out the murder weapon?”

“Clockwork.”

“What?”

“The wounds on his head were caused by the cogs of an enormous clock. He was pushed into the face of the clock that killed the worker twenty years ago. What’s that thing you say all the time - poetic justice?”

Bellamy set his jaw.

In the moving light from the streetlights they passed, he looked like a noir hero, readying himself for a final battle, and she found herself completely captivated by the curls at the nape of his neck. Trying not to be in love with him was _hard_. It was time consuming. And she didn’t want to do it anymore.

She made a decision. “Hey, when this is over and you’ve arrested the guy, I think we should go out.”

He frowned. “Yeah, I know, Clarke, we do it every time we solve a case, you don’t need to remind me.”

“No, I mean,” she swallowed, “I think you should date me.”

He tapped a little too hard on the brake as they approached the building, making them both lurch forward as the car came to a stop.

_“What?”_

“Well, I mean, I’m in love with you, and I have been for a while, and we’re a good team and I think you should date me. But if you’re not interested then we can just move on and forget I ever said anything.”

“Clarke, I-”

But he cut himself off when he glimpsed the suspect running back into the clocktower.

“Stay in the car!” He snapped, leaping out and giving chase.

* * *

Later that night, after Bellamy had caught the guy and they took him back to the FBI, and Clarke had finished clearing up her work, she ended up at the same 24 hour diner they always did after big cases.

She stared into the bottom of her coffee and cursed the fact that evolution had ever granted her the proclivity for speech.

She couldn’t fathom why she’d picked _that_ moment, of all the time she spent with Bellamy, to tell him she loved him. And he hadn’t said a word about it afterwards. In fact, he’d been incredibly quiet for the rest of the time they spent together, which was highly irregular where Bellamy was concerned.

She didn’t really expect him to turn up at the diner either, which is why she wasn’t disappointed when she got up to leave and he still hadn’t made an appearance.

She _wasn’t_.

It was just past midnight and she’d been awake for hours - she probably just needed to rest.

But she’d barely been home long enough to get out of her work clothes, when there was a knock at her door.

She trudged over, socks sliding a little on the hardwood floor, and opened it.

Bellamy was standing on the other side, still in his usual FBI suit and tie. He was holding a bottle of wine. “Hey Princess. Nice pyjamas.”

He smiled as he brushed past her into the living room, nudging the door closed and putting the bottle of wine on the nearest counter.

“Bellamy, what are you doing here?”

“You were serious about that, right? In the car?”

“Yes, I was serious. _In the car.”_

“Good.” He retorted. “Because I’ve arrested the guy, and you said once I’d done that, we could go out.”

“I went out, you didn’t show.” She pointed out.

“That’s not what I meant.” He said, looking at her meaningfully.

She narrowed her eyes at him in confusion, still not getting it. She repeated her initial question.

“Bellamy, what are you doing here?”

He caught the edge of her sleeve and tugged her into his arms, and suddenly they were kissing and she wasn’t really sure what was going on but it was perfect and she wasn’t going to stop even if the world fell apart around her ears.

When he finally did break the kiss, he didn’t go far, nose brushing her cheek.

“I’m dating you.” He answered, matter-of-fact, and it took her a moment to remember that she’d even asked a question.

“Oh.” She breathed.

“Well, I mean, I’m in love with you, and have been for a while, and we make a good team and I think you should let me date you.” They were the same words she’d said in the car when she was fumbling over herself, but in his mouth they sounded romantic. “That alright with you, Princess?”

She was already dragging his head down to kiss him again, and she mumbled her reply against his lips. “Works for me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like it! Your kudos and comments make me happier than Doctor Clarke in the lab!


	7. she's a killer queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [@yourereallyhere](https://yourereallyhere.tumblr.com/) asked for the Queen of the South AU from my abandoned WIPs list and ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE!! Hope you like it my love!
> 
> title comes from the Queen song Killer Queen because i wanted as much QKWEEN as i could handle.

Finn being alive was certainly a revelation.

She hadn’t decided if it was a good one or a bad one yet, but it was definitely a _surprise_.

One she really didn’t have time for.

But, unfortunately, surprises were what Finn was best at.

“I’m sorry, what?!” She snapped.

Finn winced. “She’s my ex. If she sees me she might kill me, you have to go in without me.”

They were on the border into Polis, planning to meet with a dealer on Diyoza’s behest, someone who ran most of the trade here - codename ALIE - and Finn had promised her and Bellamy that he had a contact who could hook them up with a meeting. Only he failed to mention that said contact apparently violently hated him.

“I don’t give a shit if she’ll kill you, she’s _your_ contact, we need you to get in.” Bellamy snapped, shoving him forward. “So move.”

He stumbled through the beaded curtain and into the club, and Clarke followed, Bellamy bringing up the rear with his hand firmly planted on the gun at his side.

Ever since they’d arrived at the border, he’d been overly protective of Clarke, and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. If she didn’t have time to deal with Finn being alive these past few weeks, she definitely didn’t know how to decipher _that_.

“This place is like a neon sign saying ‘Raid Me’.” Bellamy muttered to her as they walked through the crowds of chipped up dancing tourists. “Your boyfriend’s dimwittedness is gonna get us killed.”

“Not my boyfriend.” She responded.

“But you still won’t let me shoot him.” He grumbled, and she was pretty sure he was mostly saying it to diffuse the tension, but there was also a definite element of annoyance in his voice. Finn had caused nothing but trouble since he’d turned up.

“Allow me.” A voice said, and they froze as an snaked out, pistol pointed at Finn’s head.

He smiled weakly. “Hey Raven. Long time no see.”

“Hey jackass.” She snapped back.

“Hey.” Clarke said, stepping closer with her hands raised in surrender. “I don’t know what he did to you, but that’s nothing to do with me. I came here to trade with ALIE.”

Raven cut her eyes across to her. “Who?”

“Don’t play dumb with us.” Bellamy growled, fingers tightening around his gun.

“I suppose with you it’s hardly _playing_ is it?” She smirked. Her finger slipped off the trigger. “Fine. But I’m not taking either of the muscleheads. I think we need to have some girl time.”

She grabbed Clarke’s elbow and dragged her through the crowd. They lost Finn and Bellamy in seconds, and Clarke didn’t like it one bit. They reached the bathroom and Raven closed the door behind them.

This was beginning to feel more and more like a trap with every passing minute.

“How do you know Finn?”

“He was my boyfriend. He faked his death and put me through hell so he could escape a death sentence from the Mountain Men Cartel.” Clarke said frankly. “He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

Raven snorted. “Well, at least you’re more honest than he is. You dating the muscly one?”

“Bellamy’s my friend.”

“So not yet then.” She mused. “You sure need Finn returned in one piece?”

“Yes.”

“Pity.”

“I thought we came in here to talk shop, not gossip about boys.” Clarke said, eyebrow raised.

Raven grinned. “I like you. So, you wanna trade?”

Clarke nodded.

“ALIE doesn’t do that. She’s the only distributor of the chip down here and she’s not letting anyone else encroach on her territory. And especially not Diyoza.”

“We’re not trying to move down here-” She faltered, swallowing, and took a hesitant step back. “We never said anything about working for Diyoza.”

“Yeah, well,” Raven shrugged, “ALIE doesn’t let anyone across the border without knowing exactly what they want in Polis, and Finn isn’t exactly subtle. She doesn’t trade, and she doesn’t like Diyoza. Her plan is to own everything on this side of the line, and for every other cartel to respect that goddamn line.”

“Like I said, we’re not trying to move down here. We’re trying to bring her product further North.”

Raven tilted her head, ponytail swishing. “Why?”

“It’s the best product in Arkadia.”

“True. What does ALIE get out of it?”

Clarke didn’t say anything. It didn’t seem like a question that actually required an answer.

Raven frowned a little, thinking it over. “Alright, you got yourself a deal. But if you’re doing this, you go all the way.”

“What are you talking about?”

And then Raven moved, shoving her over the basin and holding her down. Clarke fought her, but it was too late, and she felt a sharp pain in her neck, coursing through her veins, and then she felt nothing at all. It was like she was floating. All her worst memories were drifting behind a curtain, and all the scrapes and bruises she’d acquired over the last few weeks didn’t feel like they were there anymore. She blinked a few times, dizzy-headed, and Raven released her and stepped back.

“What did you do?” Clarke asked, tongue feeling heavy in her mouth.

“You wanna sell ALIE’s product, you’ve gotta be part of the family.” She said cryptically, and then a woman in a red dress swam into view, perfectly manicured nails tapping on the counter near Clarke’s drooping head.

“Well done, Raven. Welcome to the City of Light, Clarke.”

Clarke felt her knees go out from under her and had to catch herself on the basin, and when she blinked her heavy eyes open once again, Raven was gone.

The woman in red was still there, but Clarke had a feeling she was in her head.

A feeling that was confirmed when the bathroom door was kicked open and Bellamy ran right through the woman to get to her.

“Clarke?” He caught her around the waist and guided her to the floor, holding her to his chest while his eyes darted over her face. “Fuck. Clarke, stay with me, okay?”

“She made me take the chip, Bell…” She mumbled. “I can see her.”

He cursed again, arms tightening around her. “Stay with me, okay? I’m right here.”

He reached up and turned the tap on, trying to cool her forehead with water. This happened with four percent of everybody who took the chip - their bodies started rejecting it, fighting back against the infection in the brain, and the likelihood of death got higher the longer the chip stayed inserted.

Clarke tried to remember the statistics, to keep herself focussed while Bellamy lifted her slightly so he could douse her face and hair with ice-cold water.

He was talking to her, muttering promises and swearing he wouldn’t let this go unpunished, and stroking her damp hair back from her face so he could check her pupils.

Finn ran in, out of breath and glancing over his shoulder as if expecting someone to follow him. He flicked the latch on the bathroom door shut, and then turned around.

When he saw the two of them on the floor, his eyes widened in confusion. “What the hell?”

“Where the fuck have you been?!” Bellamy snapped, furious.

“Dealing with Raven, what happened to Clarke?” He said, crouching down on her other side and trying to touch her.

Bellamy smacked his hand away. “Get me something for her to bite down on.”

Finn looked like he might argue, but instead he undid his belt and folded it in half, offering it to Clarke. She let him place it between her teeth, locking eyes with ALIE as she did. The woman only smiled, empty.

“Knife.” Bellamy said, holding his hand out, and Finn handed his over.

“Are you sure-”

“-Clarke, this is gonna hurt, okay?” He said, ignoring Finn completely. He manoeuvered her forward, pulling her hair over her shoulder before trailing his hands soothingly down her back. “But you’re going to be fine. I promise.”

“Bellamy, I don’t like this, what if it-”

“I’m not interested in a single thing you have to say right now, Collins.” He barked. “You nearly botched the deal because you have a habit of screwing over your exes, and now Clarke is dying on a bathroom floor, s-”

“-THAT’S what this is about, isn’t it?” Finn retorted. “This is about _her_. Well you can forget it, because it’s-”

“-stop it.” Clarke whispered, pressing her eye socket against Bellamy’s knee. His jeans rubbed against her skin but she barely felt it, and she could still see ALIE’s shoes in the corner of her vision.

The men forgot their fight and Finn gripped her arms to hold her still, while Bellamy leaned closer, breath fanning over her neck.

“On three.” He said, and then pain ripped through her neck and ricocheted through her head. It was worse than anything she’d ever experienced - all the lowest moments in her life, all the broken fingers and cut legs and dark memories - everything came back at once, and it was _agony_.

She was dimly aware that she was thrashing against them, and there was a scream echoing around the tiled bathroom, but all she felt and saw and heard was _pain_.

Finn’s hands fell away - she was pretty sure she kicked him - and then Bellamy was at her back, strong arms banding her waist and keeping her arms pinned. His lips were pressed below her ear and he was murmuring something; it didn’t matter what, but she focussed on the sound and tried to drag herself back to the present.

Finally, she became conscious of her limbs again, and of the burn in her lungs. She gasped, throwing her head back against Bellamy’s shoulder, chest heaving, and he slumped with relief, loosening his grip.

“Clarke?”

She swallowed thickly. “You didn’t even count to _one.”_

His laugh was small, drained. “Figured it would go better if I went for the element of surprise.”

“Fuck you.” She breathed, but she turned her head slightly, nuzzling against his jaw.

“You okay?” He asked, reaching up to feel her forehead.

“No.”

“Okay.” He let his head fall, resting his forehead on her cheek.

She stretched her arms out, loosening them, remembering the cut on her forearm as she did, which made her wince. It was exhausting, trying to move, so she gave up and simply placed her hands on Bellamy’s thighs, grounding herself.

“Me neither, by the way.” Finn’s voice was muffled, and she glanced at him. There was blood gushing out of his nose, and he was pressing a huge wad of toilet paper against it.

She frowned, vaguely remembering the foot she’d sent into his face. “Sorry.”

He shrugged. “I probably deserved it.”

“Probably?” Bellamy muttered darkly, and Clarke elbowed him. His only reaction was to bundle her a little closer, nudge his nose against her skin, and she realised how scared he must have been to find her dying on the floor. She was resting against his chest, in the V of his legs, and he was drenched; whether from sweat or from the cold water on her she couldn’t be sure.

“At least we’ve got a deal, right?” Finn pointed out.

“Seeing as that deal nearly killed Clarke, I hope you’ll excuse me if I don’t jump up and down in glee.”

“Down boys.” Clarke said sternly.

“Sorry Clarke.” Finn said sheepishly. “I didn’t know Raven would do that, I thought it would be me she would put the chip in, I never… it never crossed my mind she’d take you instead.”

“S’okay.”

Bellamy was less moved by the apology. “Are you sure I can’t shoot him?”


	8. Hold Onto Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marper as Snowing because my first wife asked me to and I literally cannot refuse her, love you Mira

For the first time in a long time, Harper felt guilty about robbing someone.

She couldn’t put her finger on why - it wasn’t like that spoilt Princess didn’t deserve it - but something about the way the Prince had chased after her, and his pleasantly surprised expression when he pulled her hood off and saw her face, just made her feel a little bad when she kicked him in the stomach and stole one of his horses.

“I’ll find you!” Prince Monty called after her as she galloped his carriage horse away into the forest, his fiance’s purse tucked under her arm. Oddly, it didn’t sound as much like a threat as it did a promise, and she found herself almost looking forward to a rematch.

In her defence, she would never have stooped to robbery before the Evil King ousted her from the throne, and she would _never_ rob anyone if she didn’t think they could live without whatever she took. Obviously she didn’t have time to explain that business model to the Prince while she was robbing him, but perhaps the next time they saw each other.

* * *

The next time they saw each other proved to be sooner than she expected. Three days, in fact.

She fell right into one of his traps and ended up tied to a tree trunk while he pointed a sword at her, “Told you I’d find you. Where are the jewels?”

“That’s what was in that purse?” she played dumb, blinking up at him.

“Where are they?” he repeated, clearly not in the mood.

“I sold them, that’s what you do with stolen goods,” she said, squinting up at him defiantly, and she definitely saw his lips move upwards, just a little.

“Funny,” he deadpanned, as if he hadn’t just smiled at the joke. “Who did you sell them to?”

“I don’t know, I have a fence.”

“A fence?”

“Yeah, it’s this person who helps you sell stolen goods, like-”

“I know what a fence is,” he said, cheeks flushing with embarassment. “Who’s your guy?”

“She’s... private,” Harper raised an eyebrow at him.

Prince Monty sighed. “Look, I’m not going to have anyone arrested or anything. I don’t particularly like the King either, I don’t blame you for robbing his carriages, I just want the ring back. You can keep the profit from whatever else you sold in the bag, but the ring was mine.”

“You’re fine with me selling your fiance’s jewels?” Harper asked, incredulous. “Romantic of you.”

“You know as well as I do what these arranged marriages are like,” he sighed, letting his sword drop to his side. “I don’t even like her. She’s Queen Nia’s niece and she’s awful and I don’t think she wants to marry me any more than I want to marry her, but this is how it is. Honestly I’m kind of jealous of you.”

“Me?” She narrowed her eyes at him and he pulled a scrunched up piece of paper from his pocket. It was a Wanted Poster with her face on it, name scrawled underneath with the enormous bounty lighting up the parchment, and she wanted to stick her dagger through it, but her hands were stuck. “Ah. You know who I am.”

“You got out,” he said, shrugging.

“I’m being hunted across the kingdom,” she pointed out. “The King’s guards are after me, I have to rob his carriages to stay afloat, and all because he wanted to steal the throne from my family. There’s nothing about my life that you should want.”

“Hey, you get to rob carriages, ten-year-old me would have _loved_ that,” he grinned, “and twenty-year-old me thinks it’s pretty cool too.”

She hummed pensively. “Are you just trying to find the ring so you can have one last shot at being a rogue before you get married?”

He thought it over for a moment before he cut the ropes holding her to the tree and sat down next to her, pushing the dirt around with his heels, muddying up the expensive shoes. “I want the ring because it belonged to my mother, and there aren’t many things I have left of hers. The adventure is just a bonus.”

She regarded him carefully. “Well, at least you’re honest.”

* * *

They kept to the shadows as they shuffled into the tavern. She’d given him a cloak to wear over his royal clothes and he welcomed the anonymity, even if it did earn him some disgruntled looks from people as they passed. Harper made a beeline for a booth in the corner.

“Hey Harp, long time no see,” the woman looked bored.

“Hey Mori,” she grinned.

“This is the prince, huh? You’re right, he’s cute,” she said, looking Monty up and down, and Harper felt her cheeks getting warm. She elbowed Emori, but the woman only smirked at her. “I checked the inventory, and I sold that ring yesterday.”

“Shit,” Harper groaned. “Who to?”

“Oh no, we’re not doing this again, you’re not going on another crusade for someone you don’t even know, we’ve talked about this!” Emori complained. “You’re supposed to be keeping a low profile and you keep helping people and it’s not helping.”

“Mori.” Harper looked at her earnestly.

She sighed, irritated, and slid a piece of paper across the table. “I sold it to a grounder rebel. She lives near the ruins of the old castle, and she doesn’t like strangers.”

“Great,” Harper tucked the name into her pocket. “I always like making new friends.”

“Being friends with you is stressful, you know that?” Emori asked, clasping her hand before she slid from the booth and disappeared into the frey. Harper looked to Monty, who was staring at her with an indefinable expression in his eye.

“What?”

“Nothing, you’re just... good at this.”

“Good at what, being a criminal?”

“People,” he said, smiling. “Talking to them, understanding them, putting them at ease. You would have made a good queen.”

She opened her mouth to respond only to find she had nothing to say, so instead, she grabbed his hand and dragged him from the tavern and out into the night, definitely not thinking about the fact that it took him longer than it should have to let go of her fingers.

* * *

She dove behind an upturned cart, dragging Monty down with her. He landed on top of her, noses practically touching as yet another flaming arrow whipped overhead.

“You know, when I told you I’d help you get your ring back, I didn’t think it would involve fire,” she muttered, trying to ignore the flutter in her chest at his closeness. He laughed breathlessly and rolled off her, picking her dagger off the ground.

“What’s the plan?”

“I’ll let you know when I have one,” she said. “In the meantime, keep your head down and don’t die. I really don’t want a dead prince on my record on top of the other stuff.”

“Just admit you’re actually starting to like me,” he said, gaze cutting across to her, and she ducked her head.

“You wish,” she said, and then leapt over the cart, bow drawn, and sent three arrows towards the advancing grounder. The woman hissed in pain and dropped her flaming bow, backing up with her hands raised. Harper tilted her head. “Let’s try this again. As I said before, I’m not here to rob you. I’m not here to arrest you or anyone else. I’m just here to ask for a ring back, something my fence sold you yesterday.”

The dark-haired woman frowned. “But you’re royals - he’s a prince.”

“I was, I’m not anymore,” Harper said. “And this prince isn’t too bad, as far as royals go.”

“Who are you?”

“No-one important,” she smiled, warm, genuine. “I’m just a girl who sold something that didn’t belong to her, and wants to give it back.”

“You’re a thief?”

“Of sorts.”

“What’s so important about the ring?”

“Nothing, except to this one guy,” she said. “I’ve got ten other pieces of jewellery worth twice what it cost, and I’d be happy to trade you for them, or even give you the gold you paid for it - plus interest.”

The woman eyed her up. “You’re the Wanted Princess, right? I can see it now - the posters don’t do you justice, but I can see it. Why are you helping a prince? I thought you swore off all the royals when you went on the run.”

“Harper,” she introduced herself by folding her bow and arrow back into their sling, a sign of peace. “And like I said, this one isn’t all bad. He can’t help his lineage any more than I can.”

The woman took a moment, and then stepped forward, extinguishing the flaming arrow on the ground between them. “Octavia. You’re alright, McIntyre. I like you. You can tell your prince he can come out now, I’m not going to shoot him.”

“He’s not _my_ prince,” Harper mumbled, as Monty crept out from behind the cart, smiling anxiously at their attacker.

“Hi. Sorry.”

“What are you apologising for?” Octavia asked.

“Uh. Being a prince, I guess,” he said.

She snorted. “Well that’s a first. Don’t worry about it, Green, if you’re hanging around this sort you can’t be totally awful.”

“Does that mean you’re open to trade?” Harper asked, hopeful.

Octavia scoffed and tossed something into the air. It spun, catching the light, over Harper’s head and into Monty’s chest. He clutched at it, surprised to find that it was his mother’s ring, and looked back to the rebel, who just lifted a shoulder noncommittally. “You can keep the ring, I don’t need it.”

“We can’t just take it, what do you want in return?”

Octavia regarded her. “Just... when you bring the fight back to the Evil King, invite me along. That’s all the reward I need.”

“Deal,” she said, holding her hand out for the woman to shake. They clasped fingers, a promise cemented, and Harper passed her a vial of something as she let go. “Fairy dust, so that you can find me if you need me.”

“Whatever,” she said, but there was something soft behind her hard expression. “Now get out of here before I change my mind.”

Harper spun on her heel and grabbed Monty’s hand, leading him back through the woods towards the road where they’d left the horses.

“See,” he said, smug.

“What?”

 _“People,”_ he said insistently. “Harper McIntyre - the people’s queen.”

She turned away from him, untying the horses so he couldn’t see the blush rising in her cheeks. “Yeah, well... maybe someday.”

“Someday,” he agreed, taking the reins off her. This was it - their little adventure was over, he had no reason to stay - but still, he hesitated. “What are you going to do now?”

“I probably shouldn’t tell you,” she smiled. “Reasonable deniability, you know.”

“True,” he said, but he still wasn’t moving.

“Is that... is that for your fiance?” Harper asked, looking at the ring still clasped in his hand.

He blinked, like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over him. “Uh. Well. I guess so, but... I think I might keep it for now. I don’t love my fiance, and I’m pretty sure my mother would kill me if she knew I was letting her ring be worn by someone I’m not in love with. _Not a perfect fit,_ she’d say, and she’d be right.”

“Can I see it?” Harper asked, and held out her hand.

Rather than placing the ring in her palm, he turned her hand over and slid the ring onto her fourth finger, and there was something fizzling in the air between them as she admired the green gem in the fading light.

It was a perfect fit.

“You know what,” Monty said, eyes earnest as they caught hers, “I think you should hold onto it. Clearly I’m not the best person to keep an eye on it.”

“No, I couldn’t-”

“I’ll come get it when I’ve found someone my mother would be proud of,” he said, fingers warm against the back of her hand, thumb running along her palm. “You keep it until then, so you know you still have friends who wear royal crests. As a reminder that we’re not all the Evil King - some of us are on your side.”

“I’m not trying to make sides.”

He shook his head vehemently. “But people will take yours anyway, Harper. Because you’re what they need, and the more you do what you do, the more they’ll join you. Even people in castles.”

He let their hands drop between them and backed towards his horse, swinging a leg over it and settling himself in the saddle. She took the cue to climb onto her own horse - or rather, the one she’d stolen from him - and start trotting in the other direction.

“Harper?” Monty called out.

She glanced over her shoulder. He already felt so far away. “Yeah?”

He smiled softly, _“I’ll find you.”_

* * *

Harper woke up in a cold sweat, trying to remember the dream. It had felt so real at the time, but now it was slipping away.

It was silly, really, to still have fantasies about fairytale princes, but something about the dream made her feel wistful for it, and she tried to shake the feeling off so she could get ready for work.

She sat up in bed, stretching, and thought about what Madi had said the night before - that odd story she’d been telling about her true love being a prince from a storybook, and she decided her dreams must have latched onto the idea. She wondered if Madi had managed to convince Clarke to stay in town yet, and she made a mental note to check in on her that afternoon, maybe bring her some cupcakes to show her how welcome she was.

She walked into town, the dream steadily slipping away, but the edges of it caught in her memory, like she couldn’t quite let go, and as she walked into Miller’s diner, she thought she caught a glimpse of a familiar face.

“Monty?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what do y'all think? 
> 
> comments make me happier than monty seeing harper, and that's a lot


	9. time trips and tenderness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The anomaly accidentally throws together dropship bellamy and clarke and s6/7 bellamy and clarke, in front of everyone (bring out your popcorn kids)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @starlightafterastorm asked for a “little Bellarke timey-wimey time travel story” and honestly that’s like catnip to me, so here you are my dear!

Clarke wasn’t sure what happened.

One minute she was walking through Sanctum on her way to meet Madi after school, the next her foot stepped into nothing and she was falling, hard. She landed in a cloud of dust and wisps of material, and she coughed as she pushed herself back up on her knees.

“Clarke?!”

She lifted her head. She had fallen through some kind of hidden trapdoor into a secret room, clearly well out of use, and her fingers had snagged a sheet as she went down, dragging it off a large machine against one wall. A few heads began to appear over the trapdoor as Bellamy called her name again, and she looked up.

“I’m okay,” she reassured him, getting to her feet and dusting off her pants. She narrowed her eyes over at the contraption; it had symbols carved all over it like the anomaly and levers along one side. “What are you?” Clarke muttered to herself as she approached it.

There was a series of dull thuds behind her and she turned to find Bellamy, Gabriel, Murphy and Miller had all jumped down into the room after her.

“Cute,” Murphy deadpanned.

“I was wondering where this went,” Gabriel said, brushing the last of the flimsy cover off the machine. “Russell must have hidden it after I left.”

“What is it?” Miller asked.

“It was supposed to be able to figure out what the anomaly did by harnessing it, but I could never get it quite right. It could take a snapshot of the wave but the readings were all over the place; it was incomprehensible. I managed to capture what I thought was part of the anomaly inside this-” he rapped his knuckles against the glass box in the center of it, “-but once the wave disappeared, so did whatever was in here. And then I never got to try it again, for obvious reasons. I had to make do outside of Sanctum, I figured Russell had destroyed this one.”

Clarke felt Bellamy’s hand come up against her side, and she glanced at him, seeing the concern in his face as he looked her over, checking for injuries. She wanted to tell him she was fine, but she couldn’t help but savour the feeling of his palm against her waist. It was pathetic, really, what she’d been reduced to - gasping for every tiny morsel of physical affection she could get. She opened her mouth to say something, but caught herself when she saw something flickering behind the glass in the machine. It was small, but she was sure she saw a lick of green flame.

“Is that…” she stepped forward. “I think there’s something in there.”

“Unlikely,” Gabriel started to say, right before the entire cavern lit up with green as the flame burst into life inside the box and the machine started on its own.

“Holy shit,” Murphy vocalised what they were all thinking.

“What the hell?” Gabriel shook his head. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

And then the light flashed, filling up the entire room and blinding them all. Something slammed into Clarke’s shoulder and she would have hit the ground again if it weren’t for a pair of strong arms catching her. There were clatters and shouts and then the light faded and Clarke blinked the vision back into her eyes. She squinted, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The light must have screwed with her head, because there was no way the scene before her was actually happening. Except-

“Clarke?” Bellamy asked, taking a step towards her, confused.

But he didn’t look right; he was younger, clean-shaven, and she remembered the clothes he was wearing but she hadn’t seen them in years. The figure at her back tensed, and she looked up to see Bellamy - her Bellamy - frowning warily at the figure before them.

He opened his mouth, “What-”

“Why are there two of us?” Another voice said, and Clarke turned her head to stare directly into her own face. She was younger, hair longer, wearing a shirt that Clarke missed. She tilted her head. “You cut your hair.”

“Yeah. A while ago,” she replied, unable to think of anything else.

“I don’t like it.”

“I do,” Young Bellamy remarked, eyes raking over her. “Suits you, Princess.”

Bellamy’s grip tightened instinctively on Clarke’s shoulder at the old nickname, and he snapped his fingers at his young self. “Hey! Jackass! Eyes up here.”

Young Bellamy smirked, but dragged his gaze up, raising an eyebrow at himself.

“I got old.”

“Fuck off.”

“Real mature,” Young Clarke rolled her eyes. “I see you haven’t changed.”

Clarke couldn’t help but laugh incredulously at the idea. Gabriel and Murphy were getting to their feet behind them, and Miller was standing to the side staring widely. She wondered how young these versions of themselves were - it was definitely the dropship days, but it had to be _early_. There was no way she would be automatically irate at Bellamy after the Day Trip, so it must have been before that.

“Where are we?” Young Bellamy asked, taking in the tiny room and the hole in the ceiling.

 _“When_ are we?” Young Clarke corrected.

Gabriel lifted a hand, “It’s probably better you don’t know that. We don’t know how the Anomaly works; we should mess with it.”

“Didn’t Octavia’s memory get wiped when she returned?” Miller asked.

“Well, yeah, but-”

“So you’re in the future, we’re on a different planet, and you two are in love but neither of you have done anything about it which drives the rest of us fucking insane,” he explained loudly, before anyone could jump in and stop him. Clarke felt Bellamy’s hand on her shoulder loosen, like he wasn’t sure what to do with those words out in the open, and she became hyper aware of every part of her body that was touching his; wanting to move away but frozen to the spot.

Young Bellamy snorted. “Not likely.”

“How did we get here?” Young Clarke asked, completely sidestepping the other revelation.

“There’s an Anomaly on this planet that messes with time,” Gabriel chimed in, resigned to the fact that they were going to know regardless of his protests. “I built a machine to harness it and somehow it spat you both out.”

“Why us?” she made a face, looking over at Young Bellamy with distaste.

“Didn’t you hear, Princess, we’re in _love_ ,” he replied, raising his eyebrows at her in that cocky way that used to drive her crazy.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Hey, Future Miller said so,” he shrugged, clearly amused by her annoyance.

Young Clarke rounded on their older selves. “He’s joking, right? You’re not really in love?”

Clarke opened her mouth but nothing came out, and she could feel Bellamy shifting his weight behind her, also staunchly refusing to say anything to break a silence that was becoming steadily more awkward. Young Clarke faltered, and the amusement fell off Young Bellamy’s face.

“You’re not serious?” he asked, incredulous.

“Oh my god this is better than Christmas,” Murphy grinned.

“Shut up, Murphy,” Clarke and Bellamy said in unison.

Young Bellamy’s gaze cut across to him, curious, and Murphy lazily saluted, leaning against the wall.

“Still following Bellamy’s orders, I see,” Young Clarke remarked.

Murphy snorted. “You hear that, Bellamy? She thinks I’m a lackey.”

“No, I think you’re a dick,” she snapped, eyes narrowing at him. “You shove around the younger kids and you picked a fight with Wells.”

Clarke felt the breath catch in her throat. She was talking in the present tense, which meant that these versions of themselves were from before Wells died, and she wanted to cry at what they were still yet to go through. At all the horrible things headed their way. Bellamy seemed to come to the same conclusion, and his arm slid down her arm soothingly, stroking between her shoulder and her elbow.

To his credit, Murphy’s attitude sobered somewhat, and he shrugged. “Yeah, I was an asshole back then. But I like to think I’ve done enough to make up for it by now.”

“Give it another year,” Clarke joked, trying to push down the tears that threatened to fall.

Murphy noticed her expression and huffed, walking forward to hook an arm around her and pull her into a bony hug. “Anything for the Princess.”  
  
She managed a watery laugh into his shirt before she pulled away, and he pinched her side. “Don’t you get crying on me now, you know I’m bad at dealing with that.”

“Shut up, Murphy,” she repeated, but there was a smile in her voice.

“Wow,” Young Clarke said slowly. “You weren’t kidding. I’m friends with you?”

“Don’t push it,” he winked. “Sexually charged acquaintances at best.”

“You’re disgusting,” she muttered.

“No arguments here,” he flashed a grin. “Anyway, it’s nice to catch up and all, but now that they’re here, how do we send them back?”

Everyone turned to look at Gabriel. He held up his hands. “I have no idea. All I know is we can’t let them leave this room, because even if the Anomaly wipes their memories, if everyone _else_ sees them, then people might try to use this machine for the worst. The second they return to where they came from, I’m destroying it. In the wrong hands, this could be a weapon of mass destruction.”

“So we just have to… sit here?” Young Bellamy asked, already looking restless.

“Until the wave returns, yes.”

“Great,” Young Clarke said sarcastically, pointedly not looking at either of the Bellamys.

A heavy silence fell over the room, no-one willing to permeate it. Gabriel was scrutinising the machine, attempting to appear oblivious to the awkwardness, while Murphy and Miller were just staring between the two sets of their friends like it was a tennis match, waiting for someone to volley first. Bellamy’s hand had long since stopped moving, clasped loosely around Clarke’s elbow, and she was watching Young Bellamy as he tried to maintain that cocky bravado she remembered finding so annoying. Young Clarke just folded her arms and glared at the hole in the ceiling.

“Well, this is fun,” Miller deadpanned.

Young Clarke huffed. “I just don’t see how we would ever become… that.” She gestured at her older self and Bellamy dismissively. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s been a long time since the Dropship,” Clarke said quietly.

“But still; Bellamy? I thought I had better taste,” she turned up her nose, and Clarke noticed the way Young Bellamy’s gaze flitted across to her, amused.

Even back then, he didn’t hate her as much as she thought he did. And she remembered those days - she hadn’t hated him as much as she wanted him to think either.

“I’m wounded, Princess,” Young Bellamy teased, clutching his chest like he’d been hit. “I thought we had something.”

“Was I really that arrogant?” Bellamy asked, sounding bothered.

Miller choked on air.

“God, remember the arguments we used to have?” Clarke said wistfully. “I miss those.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, shaking his head. “Things were so simple. We only had to worry about a hundred delinquents, not the world ending. Fuck, I miss all of it, how sad is that?”

“Pretty pathetic,” Murphy chimed in.

Bellamy’s hand was still on Clarke’s arm, and Young Clarke noticed, raising her eyebrow at them. “When did this happen? When did we get so close, what changed?”

“Everything,” Clarke said, at the same time as Bellamy said,

“Nothing.”

“Well that clarifies it,” Young Clarke said sarcastically.

Young Bellamy snorted. “Don’t be like that, Princess, it can’t be the most repulsive idea in the world. Don’t think I haven’t caught you sneaking a peek at me in the mornings before I put a shirt on.”

“Did you really? I thought I was being subtle.” Clarke asked, looking up at Bellamy.

He shrugged. “Yeah. I figured you didn’t like that you found me attractive though, seeing as you constantly got in my face, so I never brought it up.”

“Until now, apparently,” she smiled, and he returned the expression, eyes crinkling in the corners as he looked down at her, faces closer than they had any right to be.

“I just don’t get it,” Young Clarke interrupted, exasperated.

“I do,” Young Bellamy ran a hand through his curls as the attention of everyone in the room stuck to him, looking sheepish and avoiding her gaze in particular. “Hey, I might find you annoying, Princess, but you’re not unattractive. And you’re smart, and you care about people - too much, sometimes - and you think ahead, which is more than I can say for most of us.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me the entire time we’ve been on the ground,” Young Clarke said, surprised.

He shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.”

“Why not? Clearly we get there eventually,” she gestured at the older versions of them.

“Don’t want you getting too cocky,” he said in explanation, smirking.

She rolled her eyes so hard it looked like she might pull a muscle. “You’re such an ass, how did I ever fall for you?”

“It was all the beard,” Clarke deadpanned, the joke out of her mouth before she could overthink it.

Behind her, Bellamy froze. “Really?”

She turned around to face him and his arms fell to his sides, eyes widening at her as she started berating him, arms gesticulating wildly. “No, you idiot, I’ve been in love with you for years, I didn’t just decide when you got back to the ground that I find beards sexy. In between falling in love with you and losing you, I didn’t think, _‘hm, wow, if only he had a beard, then I would jump his bones’._ Oddly, that thought never crossed my mind. I don’t know exactly when I stopped just looking at you as my friend and started looking at you as the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, but it was long, _long_ before the fucking beard. God, Bellamy you’re so much more intelligent than you give yourself credit for, but sometimes, you’re so-”

Bellamy cut her off by kissing her, fingers on her cheeks and lips warm against hers, and she melted into it, caught completely off-guard. One of his hands slid around her head, tangling in her hair, and she sighed into his mouth and draped her arms over his shoulders, deepening the kiss.

“Gross,” Murphy said, but she could hear the smile in his voice.

“Seriously? Eight million years of sexual tension and that was all it took? You made a joke about finding beards sexy and _that was all it took?!_ You could have saved us all _years_ of torment,” Miller complained loudly, but Clarke just flipped the bird at him over Bellamy’s shoulder.

“Stop kissing in front of the children, you’re upsetting them,” Gabriel said, impassive, and Clarke laughed, breaking the kiss. She caught Gabriel’s eye and he grinned, winking as he went back to fiddling with the levers and pulleys on the machine.

“Did that just happen?” Bellamy asked, soft.

She blinked. “Yeah. I guess it did.”

“Doesn’t feel different,” he murmured.

She searched her feelings, waiting for some kind of realization to hit her, or for the world to shift under her feet, but Bellamy was right - it didn’t feel any different at all. It felt exactly like they always did. She hummed agreement, stretching up on her toes again to press a chaste kiss against his lips and he chased her back down to the floor, arms banding around her waist to keep her there.

“Is it weird that I found that kinda hot?” Young Bellamy asked, squinting as he thought it over.

“Yes,” Young Clarke snapped.

“I mean, it’s _us_ ,” he pointed out.

“And?”

“And watching us make out is kinda hot, Princess, I don’t know what you want me to say,” he rounded on her, one hand resting on his gun the way he always did back then.

Gabriel made a noise of excitement, dropping a pin back into the contraption, and it whirred to life again, green starting to glow from within the glass box.

“Everyone back!”

They all stepped away, leaving Young Clarke and Bellamy still bickering in the center of the room. Miller squeezed Clarke’s hand as she leaned back against Bellamy’s chest, his arm around her waist, as they watched the young versions of themselves get in each other’s space, all heated words and blatant sexual tension. She poked his chest and he stepped closer into his space, and both of them seemed to be doing their best not to let their eyes drop to each other’s lips and _still_ failing. It was almost comical how obvious they were.

“Is that really what we looked like?” Clarke asked.

“Yep,” Murphy nodded.

“I can’t believe we didn’t see it,” she shook her head, awestruck. “Look at us, we’re practically desperate to tear each other’s clothes off.”

“We are not!” Young Clarke and Bellamy said at the same time, right as the green light flashed once more, filling the entire room and blinding them all.  
When it faded, the two of them were gone, leaving no trace of their presence behind, and Gabriel patted the hood of the machine, happy with the result. He glanced up at the rest of them, still processing what had just happened, and tossed a hammer at their feet.

“Who wants to help me destroy it?”

Murphy didn’t need to be asked twice, picking it up and taking a wild swing at the machine. Miller joined next, while Gabriel went looking for some accelerant to set it on fire, and Bellamy made to join him, but noticed the way Clarke had fallen silent. He hung back, moving into her space, trying to catch her eye.

“You okay?” he asked, lips almost close enough to brush her forehead as he talked.

“I’m just thinking about them,” she admitted. “About everything they’re going to go through. It’s not fair.”

He tangled his fingers in hers. “No, it isn’t. But we made it; here and now.”

“Yeah.”

“The past is the past, there’s nothing we can do to change it-”

“Especially not _now!”_ Murphy yelled, slamming the hammer down once more and making the machine cough smoke.

“-but we’ve got a whole future to look forward to,” Bellamy continued, ignoring the man. He tugged Clarke closer. “And I’m looking to you, Princess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> your kudos and comments make me happier than murphy destroying a time machine


	10. a royal pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a royalty arranged marriage au with some pregnancy thrown in for @life-astudyofhypotheticals because TROPES ARE AWESOME KIDS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did i squeak with glee when i picked the title of this fic? absolutely yes. 
> 
> did i make Abby into kind of a cold, rude mother in this fic? also yes. 
> 
> do i know what era this is set in? absolutely not. vaguely not modern, i guess? 
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoy it <3

“You need me to WHAT?!” Clarke asked, incredulous.

“Bear an heir,” Abby repeated, like it was obvious.

They were sitting at the breakfast table when Abby brought it up, and Clarke had nearly choked on her toast. It’s not like she didn’t know her mother was trying to marry her off for the kingdom, but she never expected her to just jump right in like that. She thought she’d spend a few more months being coy about it at least.

“So you’ve arranged my marriage?” Clarke asked, taking a long draught of champagne from the glass that Jasper discreetly handed her, no longer caring that it was too early in the morning for alcohol.

Abby tutted. “You knew this was coming, Clarke, you’re a princess; you don’t get to decide. You marry who is best for the kingdom, and Kane’s kingdom is what we need right now. They have resources we don’t, and the only reason they even agreed to this arrangement was because Kane doesn’t have any legitimate children - his heir is the son of his sister, and he needs to legitimise him. Marrying him to another kingdom’s successor will do that.”

Clarke narrowed her eyes over the glass, trying to keep her emotions below boiling point. “And you want me to bear an heir.”

“Of course, Clarke, that’s to be expected. But look at King Marcus; he never bore an heir of his own and now his kingdom is in danger of becoming unstable due to his nephew’s legitimacy being questioned. I don’t ever want to lose our kingdom simply by lack of trying.”

“Lack of tr-” Clarke cut herself off by downing the last of the drink, trying to stop her mind from reeling. Jasper appeared at her side to switch the glass out for a full one, and she could see Monty glaring angrily at the back of her mother’s head while he refilled hers. It was nice to know she wasn’t the only person who found this insane. Abby would find it repellent that Clarke was friends with ‘the help’ but she didn’t care. She’d never really cared much about that kind of thing, much to her mother’s chagrin, which was probably why Abby was leaning so hard on the arranged marriage - it was the one thing Clarke couldn’t really contest.

Clarke took a breath, trying to calm herself. “Do I get to meet this man?”

“You’re getting married next Thursday,” Abby said, impassive.

Clarke actually did choke on her toast that time.

“Wh- shit...”

“For goodness sake, temper your language, child. If you speak like that in front of Kane’s nephew, you will give him the wrong impression of your character.”

“Or the right one,” Jasper muttered, which only made the choking worse because Clarke started laughing and tried to muffle it by shoving more bread in her mouth.

When she got her bearings back, lungs burning, she asked, “I don’t even get to meet him before our wedding day?”

Abby sighed loudly and folded her hands over the table - a clear sign that Clarke was in trouble. “This is how it has always been done. I didn’t meet your father until our wedding day and we were perfectly civil until the day he died. You’re far too much like him sometimes; he wanted to be radical and spend more time with the people, and I appreciate the sentiment, but that’s just not realistic. You are marrying this gentleman and that’s the end of the discussion.”

And with that, Abby pushed her plate away and left the room.

Clarke slumped down in her chair and Monty put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “Hey, look at it this way - at least it’s not your cousin.”

* * *

Clarke had never been fond of dresses. She didn’t hate them, but boy did she prefer a comfortable pair of pants to eighty layers of tulle and silk. Yet there she was, standing in front of the mirror in a white wedding dress while Harper added the finishing touches to her hair.

“Are you sure you can’t take my place?” Clarke asked, for at least the third time that afternoon. “We look enough alike, I’m sure we could manage it, at least for long enough for me to escape.”

Harper ducked her head as she laughed. “I don’t know why you’re complaining, he’s really attractive.”

“You’ve _seen_ him?!” Clarke’s eyes widened. “When?!”

Harper raised her eyebrows. “About an hour ago, all of us had to go meet his staff, to make sure none of us step on each other’s toes, and he was there.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, actually. I think he was concerned we might not be very friendly to each other.”

“Interesting,” Clarke hummed.

Someone knocked on the door, and then Monty poked his head around. “Are you almost ready? The ceremony is supposed to start in a minute.”

“All done!” Harper said, stepping away from Clarke so she could admire her handiwork. “And looking like a princess, if I do say so myself.”

Clarke walked carefully towards Monty, dress swishing with every step, and looped her arm around his elbow so he could guide her towards the great hall she was about to get married in.

“You look beautiful,” he said, genuine.

“Thanks,” she sighed, trying to muster up some enthusiasm. “Why couldn’t _you_ walk me down the aisle?”

He smiled sadly. “I’m a servant, Clarke.”

“I don’t care,” she said, earnest, and he squeezed her hand. “I’ve met King Marcus maybe twice in my whole life, I don’t want him walking me down; if I can’t have my dad, I’d rather have a friend, and with Wells so far away, you're my favourite person.”

"Don't let Jasper here you say that, he'll be upset."

"I want my friend to give me away, not a king," Clarke whispered, anxiety starting to peak in her chest. 

Before he could reply, they reached the doors and the king himself poked his head through. “Ah! Princess Clarke, I was beginning to think you might have gotten lost.”

“In my own castle?”

“I get lost in mine all the time,” Kane admitted, taking her arm from Monty as he stepped away. Clarke really didn’t mind Kane, if she was honest - he wasn’t the worst king she’d ever met - but she still ached for someone else to take her towards one of the biggest moments of her life. He seemed to notice her discomfort and tilted his head sympathetically. “I’m sorry your father couldn’t be here.”

She managed a wan smile. “Me too.”

Music swelled and the doors burst open, and then she was walking, automatic, with Kane at her side down a long carpeted nave. The hall was _packed_ with people and she kept her eyes forward, looking at the man she was about to marry.

Bellamy Blake.

He was tall, dark hair slicked back and dark eyes scrutinising her as she approached. His hands were folded in front of him and she could see the tension in his frame the closer she got. Harper wasn’t wrong, he was handsome, but there was something in gaze, something like arrogance or annoyance or maybe both, that made Clarke’s hackles rise.

As she reached the front, Kane let go of her, and she stood in front of this man, the man she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with, and all she could think about was that she didn’t know the first thing about him.

* * *

The ceremony, and the celebrations afterwards, passed in a kind of slow blur.

Clarke wasn’t really registering any of it, she was just going through the motions. She said “I do” and she let the man kiss her briefly on the lips, dry and to the point, and she sat beside him throughout dinner and dessert and the various entertainment before them, smiling and nodding as people came up to the table to congratulate them.

She was slightly comforted by the fact that he seemed as uncomfortable as she did, sitting up just a little too straight in his chair and drumming his fingers on his knees where no-one else could see.

Jasper kept bringing her drinks - thank god for her friends - and on the third or fourth time he slipped between them to top up her champagne, she nudged him slightly, looking to Bellamy’s empty glass. Jasper took the hint and filled it, before winking at Clarke and disappearing back to the kitchen. She wished she could go with him.

Bellamy sipped the drink, gaze cutting to her briefly before returning to the crowd. “Thanks.”

She lifted a shoulder, noncommittal, and bit into the last piece of cake on her plate. She was still chewing when someone approached; a dark-haired girl, who looked pretty angry, and Bellamy winced.

“I’m really sorry,” he muttered, and Clarke didn’t get to ask why before the girl spoke.

“This is bullshit, you know,” she snapped, keeping her voice low.

“Princess, this is my sister,” Bellamy said. “Octavia, this is Clarke.”

“Uh,” was Clarke managed to get out before she forged ahead.

“He doesn’t need to marry some prissy princess just to prove he can run a kingdom, it’s stupid, and frankly it’s offensive. If you think you’re going to come in and run our place like it’s your own you’ve got another think coming, Princess. We don’t need you, and we certainly don’t _like_ you, so you better keep your opinions and your condescension and your money to yourself.”

“O,” Bellamy said, chastising, and she rounded on him.

“No, it’s bullshit and you know it, Bellamy.”

He sighed. “It’s done now, there’s no point picking a fight with the person I now have to spend the rest of my life with, let alone the rest of this evening. Getting angry about it isn’t going to undo the fact that I’m married. It is what it is.”

“It’s bullshit,” she repeated, glaring between him and Clarke. “You don’t get to look down on us just because your kingdom is wealthier and Bellamy isn’t a direct heir.”

Not for the first time that evening, Clarke was thankful her mother was at the other table across the room. She took a long sip of her drink. “Did I once say I did? I don’t care how much money you or anyone else has. I don’t care if you’re direct descendants of the throne or a merchant from across the sea; either way, I don’t know you. You’re saying all this like I had a choice in the matter. You think I wanted to get married to someone I’ve never met? You think I wanted any of this? I don’t get any choice who I marry, I don’t get to fall in love, I didn’t even get to see his _face_ before I married him, I just do my duty because that’s what is expected of me. You don’t know me and I don’t appreciate the assumption.”

Octavia scowled, folding her arms like she was about to start a fight, but Bellamy held up a hand, quieting her, and she huffed loudly and stomped away back to her table where she immediately started muttering to people, shooting glares up at Clarke.

Bellamy turned to Clarke, apologetic. “She’s just worried about me.”

She shrugged, finishing off her drink. “It’s been a long day, I think I’m going to bed.”

He nodded, getting to his feet and holding out his arm.

At her questioning look, he rubbed the back of his neck, a little sheepish. “It’s our wedding night; it might look a bit strange if you go to bed alone.”

She felt mildly nauseous. “Oh.”

“Don’t worry, Princess,” he rushed to correct himself, “I don’t intend to do anything you don’t want me to do, but for the sake of appearances-”

“Good idea,” she said, before he could speak any further, and took the hand he was still holding out to her. They stepped away from the table to the cheers and toasts of the crowd, and she smiled until her cheeks hurt, until the people could no longer see them, until they reached the door to their new bedroom and she finally let it fall from her face.

He dropped her hand as he let them into the room, barely sparing a glance at the bed before he walked to the closet and started shedding clothes, hanging them up as he went. She hovered near the bedpost, biting her lip nervously, and when he glanced over his shoulder and noticed, he stopped unbuttoning his undershirt and returned to her side.

“I meant what I said, Princess, I don’t have any expectations about tonight. You don’t need to concern yourself with that.”

“We have to consummate the marriage, Bellamy, or it isn’t bound,” she said, matter-of-fact, and he laughed.

“Who’s going to know? Outside these four walls, who would notice if we didn’t?”

“Are you not... interested in women? Because if that’s the case I’m sure we could arrange something,” she noticed the expression of pleasant surprise cross his face and forged ahead. “Or is it me? If you don’t find me attractive-”

“Yeah, that’s,” he let his eyes trail down her figure appreciately, “that’s not going to be an issue.”

She blushed. “Then surely it’s just better to get it out of the way?”

He snorted. “Well, when you put it like that.”

“You know what I mean,” she bristled.

“Princess, we’re _married_. We have years ahead of us, and I don’t know about you, but I’d quite like to know more about you before we do anything else. I don’t even know what you eat for breakfast yet, let alone where you like to be kissed.”

“Neck,” she said instinctively, and his eyes widened a little. Her blush deepened. “Now probably isn’t the best time to admit I’m not a virgin, is it?”

His face broke into a wide grin. “Me neither. See, we’re learning about each other. Isn’t this a better use of our time than a quick consummation of a marriage neither of us wanted? I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind being friends, if nothing else.”

Clarke felt the tension she’d been carrying in herself for the last week slowly uncoil and she took a shaky breath, nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d like that.”

He returned to the side of the room to finish undressing and she did the same, managing to get out of most of the layers on her own before she reached the corset and gave up.

“Bellamy?” she asked, quiet, and within seconds he was at her back, fingers making quick work of the ties. As it loosened, she sighed, slumping slightly, and by the time it was completely untied, hanging off her frame, she was leaning against him and his hands were around her ribs, comforting. “Thank you.”

He hummed acknowledgement and pulled her towards the mattress, sitting down and positioning her on the edge in between his legs. Before she could think to ask what he was doing, he started taking out her hair, unwinding the twists and tugging pins from the ornate updo until all of it was hanging around her shoulders and he was idly running his fingers through it.

“You’re good at this,” she mumbled, eyelids drooping.

“I’ve got a little sister, you pick things up. You might remember her as the woman who accosted you earlier,” he said dryly, and she laughed. He removed his hands from her person and climbed into bed, pulling the covers over his waist while she finished putting her things away. She was dimly aware of him watching her, and as she tucked herself in next to him, he said, “I _am_ sorry about that by the way.”

“I understand,” she said, turning to face him on the pillows despite the darkness they were washed in. “You’re moving in here for the foreseeable future and she doesn’t want you to leave her. She has to blame someone for that.”

“It shouldn’t be you though. You didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Clarke smiled reassuringly, hoping he could see it. “It’s okay Bellamy, really. We’ll introduce her to my mother and then she’ll _really_ have someone to hate.”

And when Clarke drifted off, she did it with the sound of Bellamy’s low laugh still circling her mind.

* * *

Over the next few days, Clarke learned that waking up next to Bellamy was incredibly frustrating, mostly because she kept waking up on his chest.

It wasn’t her fault; he was warm and she seemed to unconsciously gravitate towards him, and it really didn’t help things that he looked _abnormally_ good in the mornings. The first time, she stammered an apology as she sat up, scrambling to her own side of the bed, but he waved a hand, uncaring, and promised her he didn’t mind. The fact that he went to bed shirtless only made it worse.

The first morning, he’d tossed an undershirt on loosely and encouraged her to not get dressed properly either; so they could sell the idea that they’d spent the entire night consummating the marriage. Clarke had wrapped a dressing gown around her night clothes and at his smirk of approval, they’d walked to breakfast together.

His family was staying in the castle from the wedding, so Kane and Octavia were both at the breakfast table with Abby, along with Kane’s staff, and Clarke wanted to sink into the floor when she realised they were all there, but Bellamy’s arm snaked around her waist and he kept it there as they found their way to their seats. She felt embarrassed despite not having done anything wrong, but his hand on her hip made her feel a little less anxious, especially when he seemed to forget it was there and idly stroked her side while he chatted to his sister.

To her credit, Octavia seemed a lot less furious in the light of day, and even managed to spare a nice word or two towards Clarke, which was progress.

Of course, it helped when Clarke suggested that Octavia should stay even when Kane returned to his own kingdom, to help “make the transition easier” for Bellamy. She was pretty sure she earned herself a serious chunk of respect from the fiery girl for that, not to mention from Bellamy, whose eyes poured into hers like liquid gold until Abby cleared her throat and changed the topic.

Breakfast passed comfortably and after a while Clarke could almost forget that she and Bellamy were in a significant state of undress for a royal gathering.

Almost.

Monty and Jasper, mature adults that they were, kept mouthing innuendos at her behind the heads of Abby and Marcus, and more than once, Clarke had to cough to cover a laugh. It didn’t take long for Bellamy to notice it too, and he turned and hid his smirk in Clarke’s shoulder, which only deepened their ruse.

And then, of course, some of Kane’s staff joined in, which only made the laughter in her chest bubble even closer to the surface, and Bellamy’s cheeks turn pink with the effort to remain expressionless while he ate.

As it turned out, she liked Kane’s staff almost as much as she liked her own; the ones assigned to stay with Bellamy once Kane left - Murphy and Miller - were particularly fun, and Clarke found herself in more than one animated conversation with Murphy about the local markets (which she was not supposed to have visited, but what Abby didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her). And Miller’s deadpan sarcasm never failed to bring a smile to her lips, particularly when it was directed towards her mother.

But the person she was most taken with was Bellamy.

He was perfect.

It was actually incredibly annoying how wonderful he was.

He loved to read, and in the first few days he kept going missing, until Clarke asked Miller where he was going and he told her he liked hiding in the library.

He also clearly loved his sister, and doted on the girl frequently.

He was an impressive archer (although he would be the first to tell you that his sister was better) and his sword skills were remarkable. Sometimes Clarke went and sat to the side and sketched while she watched his fencing practice with Miller or Murphy or Octavia.

He was also unfalteringly kind.

Sometimes she found herself daydreaming about what it would be like to wake him up with a kiss or surprise him before bed, especially on the occasions when she caught him looking at her with that warmth in his eyes, or when his hand brushed against the small of her back when he passed her at the table.

It was beginning to drive her a little crazy how easy it was to want him.

* * *

After a few weeks, Abby started to make more and more obvious hints about expecting them to bear an heir in the very near future, and it began to really stress Clarke out.

She wasn’t ready for a baby, and she was just getting on even-footing with the idea of being married, but her mother was always eight steps ahead and expecting her to catch up.

The first time Bellamy walked in on her having a panic attack was over two months after their wedding. He’d been away for the weekend, back in his own kingdom to assist Kane, and the entire two days Abby had done nothing but lecture Clarke about how important it was for her to bear children and how much better of a wife she could be if she would only _try_ , and if she couldn’t even bring herself to perform her wifely duties then how could she be expected to run a kingdom - and Clarke reached her breaking point. She was sitting on the edge of their bed and sobbing into her hands, unable to catch her breath, and she thought she had the entire afternoon to herself as the Blakes weren’t getting back until the evening, but she must have lost track of time, because suddenly the door of their room was opening and then it slammed as he pushed himself towards her.

“Whoa, whoa, Princess, what’s going on?!” Bellamy crouched down between her legs, trying to catch her eye.

“It’s nothing,” she wiped the tears from her cheeks and looked away, attempting to get her breathing under control.

He huffed. “It’s clearly not nothing. C’mon, Clarke, what’s going on, what can I do?”

“Nothing, I... it’s my mom, she... she just keeps talking about heirs, and she thinks I’m not _spending enough time_ on you, and she spent the entire weekend just making me feel awful about it and she think we’re already sleeping together. I can’t even imagine what she would say if she knew we hadn’t yet, I... I just... it makes me feel so...” she sobbed. “I’m not just a princess, I’m a person, I can’t just be perfect all the time, it’s so exhausting, I’m so _tired_ Bellamy, I’m-”

“Hey, hey,” his palms were stroking up and down her thighs and he was still trying to find her gaze. “Your mother has no say in what we do behind closed doors, okay? If you don’t want to-”

“But that’s the problem, I _do_ want to,” she admitted in a rush. “I want to so much, all the time. It’s all I think about. But I’m... part of me thinks that if we do, that I’m only doing it for the wrong reasons. And I know I’m not, I know I like you, but I’ve spent so long listening to my mother and the other royals that it’s so hard to separate duty and want in my head, they’re so intertwined I don’t even know if I know the difference anymore-”

“Whoa, Clarke, _breathe_ ,” he said urgently, palms ceasing their movement against her knees and the pressure of it felt like it was holding her together. “It’s okay.”

She chanced a peek at him, and she wasn’t expecting to find anger in his features. It startled her. “I’m sorry.”

His scowl only deepened. “I’m not angry at you, Princess, I’m angry at Abby. She has no right to make you feel this way. Hell, if I’d have known this sooner I would have confronted her. I would have confronted her _every day_ if I had to. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Clarke shook her head. “It’s not your problem.”

“You’re my _wife_ ,” he said, emphatic. “It is absolutely my business when someone makes you feel lesser, especially when that person is your mother.”

She felt those words to her core, resonating in her chest, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so supported. She didn’t even let Monty or Jasper see her panic attacks - the only people who knew were her father and Wells (who had been across the oceans travelling between kingdoms for two years) and she managed to keep them hidden from everyone else for fear of being accused of being weak. But Bellamy was sitting in front of her, looking up into her eyes like he wanted to fight the world to wipe the sadness from her brow, and she found herself swaying towards him.

The first time their lips met, it was moistened by her tears, and he made a noise of surprise. She made to pull back, feeling embarrassed for being so forward, especially when she was crying, but he followed her upwards, hand coming up to her neck to steady them when he kissed her.

She instinctively tangled her fingers in his curls, tugging slightly and making him moan into her mouth and yep- that was a noise she wanted to hear again.

Somehow, they ended up horizontal, Bellamy’s arms framed either side of her head as he trailed kisses down her neck, making her arch up into him. She felt his cocky grin pressed into the underside of her jaw and she couldn’t even be annoyed at it, because of _course_ he remembered.

“This okay?” he asked, moving down her chest, nosing fabric aside as he went.

“I swear to god if your clothes aren’t off in the next two minutes, I’m divorcing you,” she breathed towards the ceiling, and felt his laugh against her collarbone.

“As you wish, Princess.”

* * *

It took a lot of time for Bellamy to convince Clarke that the fact that they were sleeping together didn’t mean that she was just doing her duty. Months passed and she still couldn’t quite shake that anxiety, despite all his attempts to convince her otherwise. He made sure to check in constantly that she _wanted_ it, making sure to get her consent before he did anything, eyes always catching hers with that soothing look, to remind her that it had nothing to do with their lives outside that room.

And occasionally the bathroom.

And once in the library.

(In her defence, he’d looked particular radiant in the light from the window, squinting at the book because despite the sun being in his eyes, he didn’t want to move and lose his place.) (He didn’t mind so much about losing the place when she climbed in his lap.)

She wanted desperately to silence the voice in her head that told her it was part of her wifely duties, and sometimes, when Bellamy was murmuring sweet nothings in her ear, he could drown it out, but it was never quiet for long.

That was, until the day he told her he loved it.

It wasn’t anything big, not a sweeping romantic moment, he was just climbing into bed after her (shirtless, of course) and when he leaned across the pillow to kiss her goodnight, he mumbled the words into her lips. Like it was routine, something he always did.

“Really?” she asked, stroking his hair back from his face.

He smiled and dropped another kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Princess, I’ve been in love with you for _months_. Surely you’ve noticed. Or Octavia must have told you. Or Murphy.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t put much stock in what Murphy says,” she said, lashes fluttering.

“That’s a pity, sometimes he does actually say something of value, and it would be a shame if you were to tune it out,” he teased.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” she retorted, kissing him again.

“I love you,” he repeated, for emphasis, and she smiled into the kiss, ruining it somewhat. “And it’s not like it could come as a total shock, considering we’re married.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” she laughed.

“Go to sleep, Princess, we’ve got an early meeting tomorrow.”

“Don’t remind me,” she groaned.

“That’s what I’m here for, to remind you of all the important engagements we have to keep.”

“Ah yes, that’s the only reason I love you,” she rolled her eyes, but he froze above her, eyes boring into hers.

“Yeah?” he asked, and she almost laughed again at how earnest it was; he could tease her for being surprised at the words, but when it came down to it he was just as taken aback by it.

She shrugged. “It’s true, that _is_ the only reason.”

His head dropped against her chest, shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “You’re awful, I can’t believe I’m stuck with you the rest of my life.”

“Get used to it, I’m not going anywhere,” she teased.

Rather than return to his side of the bed, Bellamy settled in against her chest, arm curling over her waist as he got comfortable, and she played with his curls, feeling sleep beckoning. His chest rose and fell in rhythm with hers, and she’d never felt so content in her life. But still, she felt she should clarify;

“I do, you know. Love you.”

He chuckled into her shirt. “Yeah, Princess, I know. But it’s nice to hear it again. I can’t see myself getting tired of it.”

“Good, cause now that I’ve said it, I’m not going to stop.”

“Good plan,” he exhaled, already half-asleep.

And as she drifted of, Clarke noticed that she hadn’t heard that voice of self-doubt since the moment he first said the words.

* * *

Unfortunately, Bellamy was particularly blessed, and not two months after their first declarations of love, Clarke woke up feeling nauseous and ran to the bathroom. She spent most of the morning hunched over the toilet, but it didn’t occur to her that it could be anything other than food poisoning until she was sick again the next day. And the one after that.

Just over a week later, Bellamy crouched with her as he had done every day, palm stroking up and down her back as she sniffled against the wall, the worst of it fading.

“I think I’m pregnant,” she whispered.

He pressed a kiss to her temple, lingering there. “I think so too. Is that okay?”

She closed her eyes as another smaller, wave of nausea hit her. “I don’t know. I’m so sorry, Bellamy-”

“Don’t you dare apologise,” he said, earnest and passionate and everything she loved about him. “It’s okay if you’re not ready, we don’t have to-”

“I want to,” she promised, turning to look at him and ignoring the way her stomach flipped as she did. Her hand lifted to his cheek. “With you, I want to. I just... I wish it was on our terms.”

“It is on our terms, Princess,” he said, pressing his forehead against hers. “If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to, but if we’re doing this, if we’re having a baby, we’re doing it because we want to. Because we love each other and respect each other and we decide. Okay? No-one else has anything to say to us about it.”

She starting crying in earnest, overcome with emotion, and threw her arms around his neck, dragging him into a tight hug. They sat on the bathroom tiles, misty-eyed and rocking slightly, and Clarke wondered how they’d gotten here. When they got married she had decided she didn’t know him, that she wouldn’t like him, and every day since he’d managed to prove her wrong.

“I love you,” she sobbed.

“Don’t sound so enthusiastic, Princess,” he said sardonically, to hide the wobble in his own voice as he dropped a kiss into the crook of her neck.

“Shut up, you know I do.”

“Yeah,” he sat back, brushing the hair from her face. “I know.”

“I want to do it,” she admitted. “With you, I want to.”

A small smile began to grow in his cheeks. “Yeah?”

“But we’re not telling my mother for at least another month.”

“Make it two and you got a deal,” he grinned, leaning in to kiss the tears from her cheeks.

There was a noise in the doorway - someone clearing their throat - and they looked up to find Wells standing there with Jasper and Monty trailing sheepishly behind him. He smiled awkwardly down at them. “Hi. Sorry; they let me in. They said your husband would be busy with Abby by now, I assumed you would be bored and I could surprise you.”

“Wells?!” Clarke stumbled over her feet as she stood up and Bellamy’s hands snaked out to steady her, right before she leapt at her friend. “When did you get here?!”

“This morning.”

“How long were you standing there?” She asked, pulling back to look at him properly.

He shrugged, sheepish. “Long enough to offer you congratulations.”

“Yeah, congrats Princess!” Jasper said loudly, earning a smack from Monty. “Ow, what was that for?!”

“She _just_ said she didn’t want anyone to know.”

“I don’t want my _mother_ to know,” Clarke clarified, reaching blindly back for Bellamy’s hand. “Provided you can keep it a secret from her, I’m more than happy for you to tell every other person in this castle.”

Monty snorted. “Deal. Congratulations, Clarke, Bellamy.”

“Thanks,” he smiled, eyes flicking to Wells. “So you’re the best friend, right?”

“And you’re the husband. Clarke’s letters have been getting to me a little late because of my travels, but I’m pretty sure the last one I received said something about wanting to kiss you and not knowing how to ask,” Wells grinned at Clarke as a blush filled her cheeks. “I assume you’ve managed without my advice, what with the baby on the way?”

“That was _months_ ago,” she said, flustered.

“And that letter reached me barely a few weeks ago,” he replied, winking at her. “C’mon, let’s sit in the garden for lunch, you can tell me all about it.”

“Bellamy?” Clarke asked, looking up at him with all the affection she could muster. “You coming?”

“I’ll give you some time to catch up - I’ve got some news to give my sister,” he kissed her nose.

“Tell me what she says!” Clarke called after him as he ducked from the room, waving sweetly as he did.

As it turned out, there was no need for Bellamy to relay the message to her, because twenty minutes later, when she and Wells were sitting on the grass with Jasper, Monty and Miller, Octavia ran up and - very carefully - tackled her. “You’re _pregnant!?”_

“Keep it down, O,” Bellamy’s voice said as he approached behind her.

“Don’t worry, Abby’s not here, she’s with the council,” Monty waved a hand.

“You’re pregnant?” Miller asked, somewhat more subdued than the youngest Blake, who was now dancing around excitedly, attempting to drag Bellamy into it. Things had changed a great deal since their first arrival all those months ago.

Clarke smiled. “I suppose I’ll have to call Doctor Jackson, but yes.”

“Nice,” he held his fist out for her to bump and she laughed.

“Where’s Murphy?” Jasper asked, glancing around.

Bellamy made a face. “I told and he disappeared, I don’t know where he went.”

“It’s not like him to avoid us, especially when Abby isn’t here,” Miller frowned.

“CONGRATULATIONS, IDIOTS,” Murphy’s voice rang through the garden and they all swivelled to see him carrying an enormous cake towards them, iced to perfection. He put it down on the blanket and rocked back on his heels so he could cut it, handing the first slice to Clarke. “I’m so glad we got stuck with you, because Kane’s first choice was someone from Azgeda and I can’t deal with those bland, icy people. There’s no sense of humour in those mountains. You get me.”

“And more importantly, she loves your friend,” Miller nudged him with his toe.

“Ah, yep, that too,” Murphy shrugged, and Bellamy snatched a piece of cake from the plate, looking unimpressed, but it was belayed by the smirk that threatened to overwhelm his whole face.

Her family was supportive, and regardless of how anyone else reacted, regardless of the months ahead, regardless of what had brought them here, this was enough.

* * *

“I’m going to fucking _kill you!”_

Clarke had been in labour for fifteen hours and she had hated every agony-laden second, not least because at first, the only people in the room had been Abby and Jackson.

Jackson eventually asked for Harper to join them, to help with the process, but even her calming presence didn’t alleviate the stress Clarke felt at having her mother peer at her from the side of the room.

“Where’s Bellamy?” she’d panted, throwing her head back against the pillow as another contraction started building.

“He’s still in court with the parliament.” Abby said, like it was obvious.

_“Why?!”_

“Focus less on your husband and more on your baby,” she said, serious.

“Why isn’t he here, Mom?!”

“He doesn’t need to be distracted from his duties simply because of labour; it isn’t as if he could be in the room anyway, that isn’t civilised.”

“He doesn’t even _know?!”_

“You’re having a baby, Clarke, that’s hardly something he can help with.”

Clarke wanted to scream. “If someone doesn’t bring me my husband right now, I’m going to abdicate the throne.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Harper!” Clarke cried, and she took the hint immediately, running from the room and calling out for Octavia and Wells who were pacing nervously down the hall. They immediately ran to the stables to make their way to the parliament house, while Harper returned to Clarke’s side and dampened a cool cloth to place around her neck.

It felt like hours passed, but the court was only a twenty minute carriage ride from the carriage, and she was certain her friends could ride fast, but finally, _finally_ , Bellamy burst into the room.

Abby shrieked in shock. “Absolutely not! Out! Out!”

Bellamy didn’t even look at her, just climbed onto the mattress and crawled up to Clarke, his boots still on. He reached for her hand. “Hey Princess. You’re doing great, okay? I’m sorry I wasn't here sooner. You’re doing great.”

She gripped his fingers so hard she would have been worried about breaking his knuckles, if it weren’t for the pain taking up every inch of her consciousness. To his credit, he didn’t say a word, didn’t even wince, and settled down next to her, stroking her sweaty forehead.

“This is highly irregular,” Abby sniffed.

“I want her _out_ ,” Clarke managed through gritted teeth. “I don’t want her here, I can’t- get her out.”

Before Bellamy could take action, Jackson straightened and turned to the Queen. “Madam, it seems that with both the Princess and her husband in here, the parliament must be lacking in royal guidance. I suggest you make haste to assuage them - I am perfectly capable of delivering this child under Prince Blake’s supervision.”

Abby looked like she wanted to argue, but she didn’t have a leg up against the doctor, so she spared one last disparaging look at the couple on the bed before she strode from the room.

The second she was gone, Clarke slumped sideways into Bellamy. His arm came up around her, holding her upright as he offered a strained smile to Jackson. “Thank you.”

“I’m a doctor, my first priority is my patient; I don’t care what the done thing is - if Clarke wants her husband and not her mother, she gets it. There is no reason to make childbirth more strenuous than it typically is.”

Clarke whimpered in acknowledgement as another contraction started, and Jackson’s clinical gaze looked her over.

“I do believe it might be more than helpful to have you here, Prince Blake - could you sit behind the Princess? She needs something sturdy at her back, and when I tried to take the pillows away, she used some rather harsh language.”

“Because the headboard is _wooden, ah-”_ she cut herself off with a cry, scrunching her face up in pain.

Bellamy didn’t need to be asked twice. He kicked off his shoes and manoeuvred himself around until she was sitting between his legs and her arms were propped up on his thighs, nails digging into his knees. He banded an arm above her baby bump, holding her steady, and she threw her head back against his shoulder, trying to remember to breathe.

“I’m going to fucking _kill you,”_ she growled.

“That’s hardly language befitting of a princess,” he teased, and she dug her nails in harder. “Ow, ow, okay, I’m sorry, not the time for jokes, I’ve got it.”

“We are never doing this again,” she panted. “I don’t care how good you are with kids, or how cute you are, or how much you love me, we are never having another goddamn baby. This is the only one you get.”

“Whatever the hell you want,” he promised, brows pulling together in distress as she muffled a scream of pain against his neck.

* * *

Over twenty hours of labour and at least eighty curse words later, Clarke cradled her baby to her chest, unable to tear her eyes from the perfect creature in her arms.

“She’s beautiful,” she whispered.

Bellamy pulled her sweat-soaked hair back from her neck, blowing cool air on it as he looked over her shoulder at the gorgeous baby girl.

“She’s wonderful,” he agreed, kissing her cheek idly.

“I’m sorry I screamed at you.”

“I’m not, it was pretty fucking attractive,” he deadpanned, punctuating the sentence by running his nose along her cheekbone, pressing gentle kisses as he did. “Seriously, if I wasn’t in love with you before-”

“I was bright red and sweating,” she pointed out.

“You say that like it’s going to change my opinion,” he smiled against her skin and lifted his hand to brush his thumb carefully over the baby’s chubby cheeks as she slept. “Can you believe we made something this perfect?”

“Should I let in the spectators?” Harper asked, grinning.

Clarke almost started; she’d forgotten anyone else was in the room, but Harper and Jackson were both standing to the side of the bed looking tired but pleased. At their nods of approval, Harper shuffled to the door and called out, waking up the people on the other side. Wells, Monty, Jasper, Miller, Murphy and Octavia all stumbled in, half-asleep but excited to see the new royal baby.

Octavia was the first to hold her, rocking her gently as she sat on the edge of the mattress. Clarke tangled her fingers in Bellamy’s, feeling a surge of pride, and Jasper started openly weeping, grinning from ear to ear. He wasn’t the only one, although Miller and Murphy were a little more subtle about wiping their tears away.

“Where’s Abby?” Jackson asked, bemused.

“We told her we’d wake her up when the baby was born,” Monty shrugged, cooing at the baby.

“Do you want me to go get her?” Jasper asked, a teasing lilt to his voice, “I can tell her you’ve _born an heir.”_

Clarke smiled softly, watching Octavia pass the child to Wells, who looked like he was holding the entire world in his hands. “You know what, I think we can wait a few more minutes. She’s had a stressful day, after all.”

Murphy snorted. “This kid is gonna grow up a tiny menace with parents like you two.”

“Good,” she grinned.

“What are you going to name her?” Harper asked, playing with the baby’s tiny fingers as she spoke.

Clarke hummed pensively, exhausted, and rested her head against Bellamy’s. “I don’t know. Can we figure it out later?”

“Whenever you’re ready,” he agreed.

It was sappy, and later she would claim to have never had such a thought, but surrounded by her family in that room, sleep-deprived and spent, it occured to her that with Bellamy at her side, she was ready for anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for bearing with me for all these mini-fics!! There are a couple more prompts left to fill from the 666 celebration, but those have become full-fledged, full length fics, so I'll be posting those separately. I hope you've enjoyed this fun rollercoaster of ideas with me!! Thank you all for following me on tumblr or for finding me on ao3 - you're all wonderful <3 <3 <3

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!! Comments make my heart eyes so obvious they're almost bellarke thicc and keep attracting the attention of my friends and neighbours


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